


MBRKL. WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



aXED BY 



IlylvlAM J. ROLFE. 








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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 




ROUND TO\YEK, WINDSOR CASTLE. 



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SHAKESPEARE'S 



COMEDY OF THE 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



Edited, with Notes, 

BY 

WILLIAM J. ROLFE, A.M., 

FORMERLY HEAD MASTER OF THE HIGH SCHOOL, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 

IV/T// ENGRA VINGS. 




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82. 



JVETV YORK: -^^iPWASt^itj^ 



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HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

1882. 



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ENGLISH CLASSICS. 




Edited by WM. J. ROLFE, A.M. 




Illustrated. i6mo, Cloth, 60 cents per volume ; Paper, 40 cents per 


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Shakespeare's Plays. 


Othello. 


Henry IV. Part I. 




Julius Caesar. 


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The Merchant of Venice. 


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A Midsummer-Night's Dream. 


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Much Ado about Nothing. 


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All's Well that Ends Well. 




As You Like It. 


Coriolanus. 




The Tempest. 


The Comedy of Errors. 


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Twelfth Night. . 


Cymbeline. 




The Winter's Tale. 


Antony and Cleopatra. 




King John. 


Measure for Measure. 




Richard II. 


Merry Wives of Windsor. 




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Copyright, 1882, by Harper & Brothers. 



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CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Introduction to the Merry Wives of Windsor 9 

I. The History of the Play 9 

II. The Sources of the Plot 14 

III. Critical Comments on the Play 14 

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR 39 

Act 1 41 

" II 58 

'' III 76 

"IV , 97 

" V 115 

Notes. 127 




CHARLECOTE HALL, THE SEAT OF SIR THOMAS LUCY. 

They may give the dozen white Uices in their coat (i. x. iji)- 




WINDSOR CASTLE IN OUR DAY. 

INTRODUCTION 

TO THE 

MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



I. THE HISTORY OF THE PLAY. 

The earliest edition of the Merry Wives of Windsor is a 
quarto printed in 1602, with the following title-page (as given 
in fac-simile by Halliwell) : 

A I Most pleasaunt and | excellent conceited Co- | medie, 
of Syr John Falstaffe^ and the | nierrie Wines of Windsor. \ 
Entermixed with sundrie | variable and pleasing humors of 
Syr Hugh \ the Welch Knight, Justice Shallow., and his | wise 
Cousin M. SleJider. \ With the swaggering vaine of Auncient | 
Pistoll^ and Corporall Nym. \ By William Shakespeare. \ As it 
hath bene diuers times Acted by the right Honorable | my 
Lord Chamberlaines servants Both before her | Maiestie, and 
else-where. | London | Printed by T. C. for Arthur lohnson ; 
and are to be sold at | his shop in Powles Church-yard, at 
the signe of the | Flower de Leuse and the Crowne. | 1602. 



lO MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

It had been entered on the Stationers' Registers on the 
i8th of January, 1601-2, by John Busby, with an assignment 
by him to Arthur Johnson. A second quarto edition was 
brought out by Johnson in 1619.'^ 

These quartos appear to be a pirated version of the play 
as first written by Shakespeare, probably in 1599, though 
Halliwell, Knight, and some other critics would date it as 
early as 1592 or 1593.! That it was written after 2 Henry 
IV., which is probably to be dated in 1597 or early in 1598, 
is evident from the fact that Falstaff in that play (see our 
ed. p. 10) was originally called Oldcastle, but not in this one 
(Fleay). 

This early sketch was afterwards revised and enlarged to 
about twice the original length ;$ and this is the form in 
which it appears in the folio of 1623, where it occupies pages 
39-60 in the division of " Comedies." Internal evidence 
shows that this revision was made after James came to the 
throne, and probably about 1605. In i. i. 100 "king" is 
substituted for the " council " of the quarto. " These knights 
will hack,*' in ii. i. 45, is supposed to allude to the 237 
knights created by James in 1603. "When the court lay at 
Windsor," in ii. 2. 56, may refer to July, 1603 ; the court was 
usually held at Greenwich in the winter. The mention of 
"coach after coach," in ii. 2. 59, is not likely to have been 

* A third quarto edition, ^'printed by T. H. for R. Meighen" in 1630, 
is from the folio text. 

t Some of the reasons for this view will be referred to in the Azotes 
below. 

X The 1st quarto, as reprinted in the Camb. ed., has 1410 lines in all. 
Fleay, in his revised metrical tables in Ingleby's Shakespeare : the Afaji 
and the Book, Part II. (p. no), gives the number as *' 7395," which is ap- 
parently a misprint for 1395. The folio version of the play, as printed 
in the Globe ed., has, according to Fleay's revised figures, 3029 lines. 
We make it 3018, as he did in the earlier Majnml (pp. 135 and 259). 
There are evidently many omissions in the quarto, but these do not 
appear to amount to any considerable fraction of the whole. 



'INTRODUCTION. 1 1 

made much before coaches came into general use, which, 
according to Howe's Contifiuation of Stowe's Chronicle., was in 
1605. "Outrun on Cotsall/' i. i. 81, appears to allude to the 
reviving of the Cotswold games about 1603. 

The entry in the Accounts of the Revels., according to which 
the play was acted at Whitehall on Sunday, Nov. 4th, 1604, 
is now known to be a forgery ."^ It is not unlikely, however, 
that the revision of the play w^as made for a court perform- 
ance at Windsor. "The fairy scene at the close, originally 
slight, gay, and satirical, such as the good folks of Windsor 
might have invented, when inspired by a spirit of frolic- 
mischief, is discarded, in order to substitute a higher tone 
of fairy poetry, graceful and delicate, fanciful and grotesque. 
It seems probable that the author, when his play was about 
to be reproduced before the court, after some celebration of 
the Order of the Garter, rejected his former verses, in order 
to enrich his piece with a scene imitating and rivalling the 
high fanciful elegance of the masques, which had then be- 
come popular, and in which Ben Jonson was then exhibiting 
an exuberance of refined and original and delicate fancy, 
which could never have been anticipated from the stern 
satire, the coarse humour, and the learned imitations of his 
regular drama'' (V.). 

Tradition ascribes the origin of the play to Queen Eliza- 
beth. Rowe, in the life of Shakespeare prefixed to his edi- 
tion, first published in 1709, says that Elizabeth "was so 
well pleased with that admirable character of Falstaff in the 
two parts of Henry IV. that she commanded him to con- 
tinue it for one play more, and to show Falstaff in love." 
The same story had been given by John Dennis, in 1702 
(in the preface to The Comical Gallant, a comedy founded 
on the Merry Wives) with unimportant variations, indicating 
that he derived his information from some other source. He 
adds that the queen was so eager to see the play acted 

* Cf. our ed. of M. of V. p. 19, Temp. p. 8, and W. T. p. II. 



X2 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

*^ that she commanded it to be finished in fourteen days, and 
was afterwards, as tradition tells us, very well pleased at the 
representation." The anecdote was repeated by Gildon in 
1 710, and was accepted without controversy by Pope, Theo- 
bald, and other of the earlier editors. 

" Modern criticism has, however, been more sceptical, and 
according as the tradition can be made to agree with one or 
other conjectural theory of the progress of Falstaff's char- 
acter, the connection of his adventures here with those re- 
lated in the historical plays, and the relative date of the 
composition and of this comedy, the story has been either 
rejected, as wholly apocryphal, or received with such modi- 
fications as might suit the critic's theory. Mr. Knight ad- 
mits only the royal command and the rapid composition, but 
holds the Falstaff of Windsor to have been a previous con- 
ception to the Knight of Eastcheap ; while Collier rejects 
the whole story, because 'Dennis had to make out a case in 
favour of his alterations, by showing that the comedy had 
been composed in an incredibly short period, and was con- 
sequently capable of improvement.' 

" Yet, as Rowe relates his anecdote on the same authority 
with that on which most of the generally received facts of 
the poet's history are known, acknowledging his obligations 
to Betterton 'for the most considerable passages' of the 
biography ; as Betterton was then seventy-four years of age, 
and thus might have received the story directly from con- 
temporary authority; as Gildon was Betterton's friend and 
biographer, and as Dennis (a learned acute man, of a most 
uninventive and matter-of-fact mind) told his story seven or 
eight years before, ' with a difference,' yet without contradic- 
tion, so as to denote another and an independent source of 
evidence; as Pope, the rancorous enemy of poor Dennis, 
whom he and his contemporary wits have 'damned to ever- 
lasting fame,' received the tradition without hesitation ; we 
have certainly, in the entire absence of any external or in- 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

ternal evidence to the contrary, as good a proof as any such 
insulated piece of literary history could well require or re- 
ceive, although it may not amount to such evidence as might 
be demanded to establish some contested point of religious 
or legal or political opinion. The tradition, too, corresponds 
perfectly with the manner in which the printed copies of the 
comedy first appeared" (V.). 

The date that we have assigned to the Merry Wives places 
its production between that of 2 Henry IV. and Henry V., 
and in this the majority of recent critics agree ; but they 
have wasted much ink and ingenuity in trying to decide at 
what point in the career of Falstaff these Windsor advent- 
ures belong. Knight and Verplanck would place them be- 
fore his introduction in the historical plays, Halliwell be- 
tween the two parts of Henry IV., and Johnson between 
2 Henry IV. and Hetiry V. Hudson thinks that room may 
be found for them somewhere in the ten years covered by 
2 Henry IV. We are inclined, however, to agree with Col- 
lier, White, Dowden, and others, in considering the comedy 
as having a certain independence of the histories and not to 
be brought into chronological relations to them. As Wliite 
remarks, " Shakespeare was not writing biography, even the 
biography of his own characters. He was a poet, but he 
wrote as a playwright ; and the only consistency to which he 
held himself, or can be held by others, is the consistency of 
dramatic interest. And if when he deals with historic per- 
sonages we find him boldly disregarding the chronological 
succession of events in favour of the general truthfulness of 
dramatic impression, with what reason can we expect to find 
him respecting that succession with regard to the time when 
such mere creatures of his will as Shallow, or Bardolph, 
Nym, and Pistol, lent money to or entered the service of Sir 
John Falstaff, or when Mrs. Quickly ceased to be maid, or 
wife, or widow ? — if she were ever either. We must discard 
all deductions from the failure of the four plays to make a 



14 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

connected memoir of Falstaff and his friends and followers, 
as not only inconclusive but of no consequence." "^ 

II. THE SOURCES OF THE PLOT. 

The critics have pointed out several sources from which 
Shakespeare may have got some hints for the plot of the 
Merry Wives : two tales in Straparola's Le Tredici Fiacevoli 
JVotte, and a modified version of one of these, under the title 
of " The Lovers of Pisa " in Tarleton's Newes out of Pii?'ga- 
torie, 1590 ; the tale of Bucciolo and Pietro Paulo in the 
Pecorone of Ser Giovanni Fiorentino ; and " The Fishwife's 
Tale of Brainford " from Westward for Smelts. This last, 
however, was probably not published till 1620 (see our ed. 
of Cymbeline, p. 11), though Malone refers to an edition of 
1603. 

III. CRITICAL COMMENTS ON THE PLAY. 

[Fro7n Knight's "'Pictorial Shakspere:'' W . 

The critics have been singularly laudatory of this comedy. 
Warton calls it " the most complete specimen of Shakspere's 
comic powers." Johnson says, " This comedy is remark- 
able for the variety and number of the personages, who ex- 
hibit more characters appropriated and discriminated than 
perhaps can be found in any other play. ... Its general 
power, that power by which all works of genius shall finally 

* If we are to make a connected and consistent biography of Sir John 
out of the four plays, there is no alternative, to our thinking, but to 
adopt Verplanck's hypothesis (see p. 21 below) and put the Windsor 
exploits before all the other experiences of the fat knight recorded by 
Shakespeare. Elizabeth may have induced the poet to write a play 
"with Sir John in it" in the role she proposed, but after comparing the 
new Sir John with the old we are constrained to say " this is not the 
man." At some uncertain period before we meet him in Eastcheap he 
may indeed have been capable of such fatuity, but he was too old a bird 
then to be caught with the chaff of the merry wives. 

t Vol. i. of Comedies^ p. 206 fol. 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

be tried, is such that perhaps it never yet had reader or 
spectator who did not think it too soon at the end." We 
agree with much of this ; but we certainly cannot agree with 
Warton that it is " the most complete specimen of Shak- 
spere's comic powers.'' We cannot forget As You Like It, 
and Twelfth Night, and Much Ado About Nothing. We can- 
not forget those exquisite combinations of the highest wit 
with the purest poetry, in which the wit flows from the same 
everlasting fountain as the poetry — both revealing all that 
is most intense and profound and beautiful and graceful in 
humanity. Of those qualities which put Shakspere above 
all other men that ever existed, the Merry Wives of Windsor 
exhibits few traces. Some of the touches, however, which no 
other hand could give, are to be found in Slender, and we 
think in Quickly. Slender, little as he has to do, is the 
character that most frequently floats before our fancy when 
we think of \\'\^ Merry Wives of Windsor. Slender and Anne 
Page are the favourites of our modern school of English 
painting, which has attempted, and successfully, to carry the 
truth of the Dutch School into a more refined region of 
domestic art. We do not wish Anne Page to have been 
married to Slender, but in their poetical alliance they are in- 
separable. It is in the remodelled play that we find, for the 
most part, such Shaksperian passages in the character of 
Slender as, " If I be drunk, I '11 be drunk with those that 
have the fear of God, and not with drunken knaves" — which 
resolve, as Evans says, shows his "virtuous mind." In the 
remodelled play, too, we find the most peculiar traces of the 
master-hand in Quickly — such as, " His worst fault is that 
he is given to prayer ; he is something peevish that way ;" 
and " the boy never need to understand any thing, for 't is 
not good that children should know any wickedness. Old 
folks, you know, have discretion, as they say, and know the 
world j" and again, " Good hearts! what ado there is to 
bring you together; sure one of you does not serve heaven 



l6 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

well that you are so crossed." Johnson objects to this lat- 
ter passage as profane ; but he overlooks the extraordinary 
depth of the satire. Shakspere's profound knowledge of the 
human heart is as much displayed in these three little sen- 
tences as in his Hamlet and his lago. 

The principal action of this comedy — the adventures of 
Falstaff with the Merry Wives — sweeps on with a rapidity 
of movement which hurries us forward to the denouement 
as irresistibly as if the actors were under the influence of 
that destiny which belongs to the empire of tragedy. No 
reverses, no disgraces, can save Falstaff from his final hu- 
miliation. The net is around him, but he does not see the 
meshes; he fancies himself the deceiver, but he is the de- 
ceived. He will stare Ford " out of his wits," he will " awe 
him with his cudgel," yet he lives " to be carried in a basket 
like a barrow of butcher's oifal, and to be thrown into the 
Thames." But his confidence is undaunted : " I will be 
thrown into Etna, as I have been into Thames, ere I will 
leave her ;" yet " since I plucked geese, played truant, and 
whipped top, I knew not what it was to be beaten till late- 
ly." Lastly, he will rush upon a third adventure : " This is 
the third time, I hope good luck lies in odd numbers;" yet 
his good luck ends in " I do begin to perceive that I am 
made an ass." The real jealousy of Ford most skilfully 
helps on the merry devices of his wife ; and wdth equal skill 
does the poet make him throw away his jealousy, and assist 
in the last plot against the " unclean knight." The mis- 
adventures of Falstaff are most agreeably varied. The 
disguise of the old woman of Brentford puts him alto- 
gether in a different situation from his suffocation in the 
buck basket; and the fairy machinery of Heme's Oak car- 
ries the catastrophe out of the region of comedy into that 
of romance. 

The movement of the principal action is beautifully con- 
trasted with the occasional repose of the other scenes. /The 



INTRODUCTION. ly 

Windsor of the time of Elizabeth is presented to us, as the 
quiet country town, sleeping under the shadow of its neigh- 
bour the castle. Amidst its gabled houses, separated by 
pretty gardens, from which the elm and the chestnut and 
the lime throw their branches across the unpaved road, we 
find a goodly company, with little to do but gossip and 
laugh, and make sport out of each other's cholers and weak- 
nesses. We see Master Page training his " fallow greyhound ;" 
and we go with Master Ford " a-birding." We listen to the 
" pribbles and prabbles " of Sir Hugh Evans and Justice 
Shallow, with a quiet satisfaction ; for they talk as unar- 
tificial men ordinarily talk, without much wisdom, but with 
good temper and sincerity. W^e find ourselves in the days 
of ancient hospitality, when men could make their fellows 
welcome without ostentatious display, and half a dozen 
neighbours "could drink down all unkindness " over "a hot 
venison pasty.'' The more busy inhabitants of the town 
have time to tattle, and to laugh, and be laughed at. Mine 
Host of the Garter is the prince of hosts ; he is the very 
soul of fun and good temper; he is not solicitous whether 
Falstaff sit " at ten pounds a week " or at two \ he readily 
takes "the withered serving man for a fresh tapster;" his 
confidence in his owai cleverness is delicious — "am I 
politic, am I subtle, am I a Machiavel ?" — the Germans 
"shall have my horses, but I "11 make them pay, I '11 sauce 
them." When he loses his horses, and his "mind is heavy," 
we rejoice that Fenton will give him " a hundred pound in 
gold" more than his loss. His contrivances to manage the 
fray between the furious French doctor and the honest 
W^elsh parson are productive of the happiest situations. 
Caius w^aiting for his adversary — " de herring is no dead so 
as I vill kill him " — is capital. But Sir Hugh, with his — 

" There will we make our peds of roses, 
And a thousand fragrant posies, 
To shallow — 
B 



1 8 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Mercy on me! I have a great dispositions to cry" — is in- 
imitable. 

With regard to the under-plot of Fenton and Anne Page — 
the scheme of Page to marry her to Slender — the counter- 
plot of her mother, "firm for Doctor Caius'^ — and the man- 
agement of the lovers to obtain a triumph out of the devices 
against them — it may be sufficient to point out how skilfully 
it is interwoven with the Heme's Oak adventure of Fal staff. 
Though Slender " went to her in white, and cried mum, and 
she cried budget, . . . yet it was not Anne, but a postmaster's 
boy/' though Caius did "take her in green," he " ha' mar- 
ried tm garfon, a boy, un paisan ;''^ but Anne and Fenton 

" long since contracted, 
Are now so sure, that nothing can dissolve them.'''' 

Over all the misadventures of that night, when " all sorts of 
deer were chas'd," Shakspere throws his own tolerant spirit 
of forgiveness and content : 

*' Good husband, let us every one go home. 
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire, — 
Sir John and all." 

[From Verplanck's ''^ Shakespeare.'''' '^'\ 

There is a prodigal and glorious throng of incident and 
character in this very admirable comedy: for variety, and 
broad, unceasing effect, it stands perhaps unrivalled. Each 
individual member of the breathing group — the Wives, the 
Husbands, the Doctor, Parson, mine Host of the Garter, 
Shallow, Slender ; every character, in short, from Falstaff 
and his satellites to Simple and Rugby — stands out in the 
clearest light, and assists in reflecting the sunshine of the 
author's intellect for the delight and instruction of the reader 
or spectator. It has been said, and truly, that Falstaff, in 

* The Illustrated Shakespeare, edited by G. C. Verplanck (New York, 
1847), vol. ii. pp. 4, 45 of M. W. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

this play, is not so unctuous and irresistible as in the two 
parts of Henry IV. ; but if the Falstaff of Windsor must 
succumb to him of Gadshill and Shrewsbury, it should in 
fairness be added, 

** Nought but himself can be his conqueror." ' 

Even the gullibility of the unfortunate old boy (as drawn 
forth of him by the witcheries of the wricked wives) places 
him in an amiable point of view, and raises a new sensation 
in his favour. Our choler would rise, despite of us, against 
Cleopatra herself, should she presume to make a dupe and 
tool of regal old Jack, the natural lord and master of all 
about him : and, although not so atrociously immoral as to 
wish he had succeeded 'with the Windsor gypsies, we yet 
plead guilty to the minor turpitude of sympathy when he 
tells his persecutors, wdth brightening visage and exultant 
twinkle of eye, " I am glad, though you have ta'en a special 
stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced." 

The serious part of this play bears but a small proportion 
to the facetious, but is equally good in its kind. The softer 
sentiment is confined to Fenton and Anne Page, both of 
whom give indications of possessing very lovable natures, 
although their persons seem thrust into a corner (an ar- 
rangement to which the lovers themselves would probably 
start no objection) by the crowd of comic roisterers. 

There are various old stories and dramas from which 
Shakespeare may have gathered hints for the dilemmas in 
which Falstaff is involved in the present play : but the tale 
of "The Lovers of Pisa," in a collection called Tarleton's 
Newes out of Fiu^gatorie appears to have been the immedi- 
ate source of his inspiration in this particular. The coin- 
cidences, however, do not extend to the characters. The 
lover in the tale is a handsome youth, and really favoured 
by the young lady, who plots with him to deceive her hus- 
band, a jealous old physician. In the play, literally speak- 



20 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

ing, the lover is old, the wives not young, and their husbands 
of corresponding ages ; but, poetically considered, they and 
the whole d7^amatis per s once, are all dainty juveniles together, 
and can never lose their freshness while the language lasts 
in which they are embodied. 

# # # # # # 

Assuming that Shakespeare, either in obedience to the 
command of his political sovereign — a lady somewhat tyran- 
nical, and not a little fantastical, and yet a woman of genius 
and of letters, whose suggestions the most republican poet 
might be proud to receive — or to please that other many- 
headed sovereign, the public, to whom the poet owed a still 
truer allegiance — after having exhausted the last days of 
Falstaff in the historical dramas, h*ad revived him for a new 
display of his character, and surrounded him with his former 
companions, it is quite incredible that he should have done 
so without some regard to the incidents, adventures, and 
characteristics that he alone had bestowed upon each one 
of them. Had these personages been like the cunning slave, 
the parasite, and the bully, of the Latin stage, or like the 
Scapins and Sganarelles of the oldJFrench comedy (charac- 
ters common to every dramatic author), he would not have 
cared for any such connection. But these were the children 
of his own fancy, and they had lived in a world of his own 
creation ; so that, though like Cervantes in similar circum- 
stances, he might fall into an occasional forgetful contradic- 
tion of his own story, it was every way improbable that he 
should not have had in his mind some plan of congruous 
invention. Now, he had already made his readers and audi- 
ence familiar with the latter part of Falstaff 's career. When 
he reproduced him, therefore, it was natural that he should 
return to a somewhat earlier period of his life, especially 
when he was to represent him as a lover. Who, indeed, 
does not assent to Johnson's remarks on Falstaff's appear- 
ance in this character? 



INTRO D UCTION. 2 1 

" No task is harder than that of writing to the ideas of 
another. Shakespeare knew what the queen seems not to 
have known, that by any real passion of tenderness, the 
selfish craft, the careless jollity, and the lazy luxury of Fal- 
staff must have suffered so much abatement that little of his 
former cast could have remained. Falstaff could not love 
but by ceasing to be Falstaff. He could only counterfeit 
love. Thus the poet approached as near as he could to the 
work enjoined him ; yet having, perhaps, in the former plays 
completed his own ideas, seems not to have been able to 
give Falstaff all his former power of entertainment.'' 

Every one of Falstaff's acquaintances must feel his amuse- 
ment at Windsor dashed with constant vexation, at seeing 
the hero of the Boar's Head " made an ass of," hunted and 
worried, and at last obliged to veil his triumphant wit even 
to "the Welch flannel." But we also feel that this same 
pleasant "villainous misleader of youth," that "grey iniquity" 
delighting to " take his ease in his own inn," could not easily 
have been made the sport and butt even of ladies as spright- 
ly and malicious as those of Windsor. It is quite clear that 
in the days of Mrs. Hostess Quickly, he had rid himself of 
all personal vanity that could lead him into any such self- 
delusions. Yet, as the vanity of being thought acceptable to 
the other sex is one of the last that men get rid of, the au- 
thor would naturally be led to paint Falstaff, in the perilous 
adventures to which he had destined him, as being still of 
an age (however ridiculous his courtship would seem to Mrs. 
Page and Mrs. Ford) to be yet liable to the delusions. of per- 
sonal vanity, and exposed to its attendant mortifications. 
He is of course made to take his last lesson of experience 
in that matter, before settling down into the lazy luxury of 
the Boar's Head. He is accordingly, though substantially 
the same character, made more of a vivacious, dissolute old 
boy, and less of the sagacious Epicurean wit, than he appears 
in Henry IV, We have, then, only to imagine an indefinite 



2 2 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

interval of two or three years, during which Pistol and Bar- 
dolph return to their old service, and Mrs. Quickly removes 
from the quiet shades of Windsor to the more congenial at- 
mosphere of a London tavern, and nothing is wanted to 
make the whole consistent and probable. 

[Frotn Charles Cow den- Clarke's ^''Shakespeare Characters y *] 
The Merry Wives of Windsor is one of those delightfully 
happy plays of Shakespeare, beaming with sunshine and good- 
humour, that makes one feel the better, the lighter, and the 
happier for having seen or read it. It has a superadded 
charm, too, from the scene being purely English ; and we all 
know how rare and how precious English sunshine is, both 
literally and metaphorically. The Meny Wives may be 
designated the "sunshine*' of domestic life, as the As You 
Like It is the " sunshine " of romantic life. The out-door 
character that pervades both plays gives to them their' tone 
of buoyancy and enjoyment, and true holiday feeling. We 
have the meeting of Shallow and Slender and Page in the 
streets of Windsor, who saunter on, chatting of the "fallow 
greyhound, and of his being outrun on Cotsalj" and, still 
strolling on, they propose the match between Slender and 
"sweet Anne Page." Then Anne brings wine out of doors 
to them ; though her father, with the genuine feeling of old 
English hospitality, presses them to come into his house, and 
enjoy it with a "hot venison pasty to dinner." And she 
afterwards comes out into the garden to bid Master Slender 
to table, w^here, we may imagine, he has been lounging about, 
in the hope of the fresh air relieving his sheepish embarrass- 
ment. When Doctor Caius bids his servant bring him his 
rapier, he answers, " 'T is ready, sir, here in the porch," 
conveying the 'idea of a room leading at once into the open 
air — such a room as used to be called "a summer parlour." 

'^ Shakespeare- Character s^ by Charles Cowden-Clarke (London, 1863), 
p. 141 fol. 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

Then we hear of Anne Page being at a "farm-house a-feast- 
ing;" and we have Mrs. Page leading her litde boy William 
to school ; and Sir Hugh Evans sees people coming " from 
Frogmore over the stile this way;" and we find that Master 
Ford "is this morning gone a-birding." Even the very 
headings to the scenes breathe of dear, lovely English sce- 
nery — "Windsor Park" — "A field near Frogmore." They 
talk, too, of Datchet Lane; and Sir John Falstaff is '' slight- 
ed into the river." And, with this, come thronging visions 
of the "silver Thames," and some of those exquisite leafy 
nooks on its banks, with the cawing of rooks; and its little 
islands, crowned with the dark and glossy-leaved alder; and 
barges lapsing on its tranquil tide. To crown all, the story 
winds up with a plot to meet in Windsor Park at midnight, 
to trick the fat knight beneath " Heme's oak." The whole 
play, indeed, is, as it were, a village, or even a homestead 
pastoral. 

The dramatis personce, too, perfectly harmonize, and are 
in strict keeping with the scene. They are redolent of 
health and good-humour — that moral and physical "sun- 
shine." 

There are the two " Merry Wives " themselves. What a 
picture we have of buxom, laughing, ripe beauty ! ready for 
any frolic " that may not sully the chariness of their honesty." 
That jealous-pate. Ford, ought to have been sure of his wife's 
integrity and goodness, from her being so transparent-char- 
actered and cheerful ; for your insincere and double-dealing 
people are sure to betray, some time or other, the drag that 
dishonesty claps upon the wheel of their conduct. The ca- 
reer of a deceitful person is never uniform. In the sequel, 
however. Ford does make a handsome atonement — that of a 
frank apology to the party whom he had abused by his sus- 
picions ; and he winds up the play with the rest, not the least 
happy of the group from having an enfranchised heart. He 
says well : 



24 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

" Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou wilt. 
I rather will suspect the sun with cold 
Than thee with wantonness. Now doth thy honour stand, 
In him that was of late a heretic, 
As firm as faith." . . . 

Then, there is Page, the very personification of hearty 
English hospitality. You feel the tight grasp of his hand, 
and see the honest sparkle of his eye, as he leads in the 
wranglers with, " Come, gentlemen, I hope we shall drink 
down all unkindness." If I were required to point to the 
portrait of a genuine, indigenous Englishman, throughout the 
whole of the works of Shakespeare, Page would be the man. 
Every thought of his heart, every motion of his body, appears 
to be the result of pure instinct ; he has nothing exotic or 
artificial about him. He possesses strong yeoman sense, an 
unmistakable speech, a trusting nature, and a fearless deport- 
ment; and these are the characteristics of a true Englishman. 
He is to be gulled — no man more so; and he is gulled every 
day in the year — no proof, you will say, of his " strong yeo- 
man sense;" but an Englishman is quite as frequently gulled 
with his eyes open as when they are hoodwinked. He has a 
conceit in being indifferent to chicanery. He confides in his 
own strength when it behooves him to exert it; and then he 
abates the nuisance. . . . 

Page has been strangely enough spoken of, in combination 
with his comely partner, as '^ih^ foolish Page and his no less 
foolish wife." These are the terms in which the worthy yeo- 
man of the Merry Wives of Windsor is mentioned by a Ger- 
man critic, who resolves all in Shakespeare's writings into an 
aesthetic truism, or a mere technicality of art. Can the right 
worshipful and very ponderous Herr Doctor Ulrici see noth- 
ing else than the "folly " of Page, because he makes a mis- 
taken plan for his daughter's bestowal in marriage? Can he 
see nothing of the wisdom of non-malice-bearing, and a cheer- 
ful acquiescence with things that have been done when they 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

cannot be undone, in his prompt forgiveness of his child's 
young husband, when he finds they have stolen a match ? — 
"Well, what remedy? Fenton, Heaven give thee joy! 
What cannot be eschewed must be embraced." Can he see 
nothing of the " wisdom " of frank English hospitality, with 
hearty English peace-making, and love of making quarrellers 
reconciled, in Page's "Come, we have a hot venison pasty 
to dinner — come, gentlemeu, I hope we shall drink down all 
unkindness?" Can he see nothing of the "wisdom" of 
Page's sturdy English confidence in his wife's honesty, where 
he says, upon hearing of Falstaff s proposed attempt upon 
her virtue, " If he should intend this voyage towards my 
wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what he gets more 
of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head ?" That the 
reliance is not a blind one, we have already learned from 
Mrs. Page's own words, just previously, where she says of her 
good man, " He 's as far from jealousy as I am from giving 
him cause ; and that, I hope, is an unmeasurable distance." 
Such a speech as that argues but little "foolishness'^ in the 
" no less foolish wife." But we have plentiful evidence, too, 
of Mrs. Page being no fool. Witness the ready wit of her 
arch reply to Ford ; when he says, alluding to the strong 
attachment subsisting between herself and his own wife, " I 
think, if your husbands were dead, you two would marry," 
she retorts, "Be sure of that — two other hiishandsy This is 
no slight to her own lord and master; but only a smart rap 
on the knuckles for her friend's jealous-pated one. There 
is any thing but "foolishness" in the brisk way with which 
she carries on the jest, in concert with her gossip, Mrs. 
Ford, against the " greasy knight," as she calls P'alstaff. 
There is any thing but lack of wit in her exclamation, 
" Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel ; and the 
devil guide his cudgel afterwards." And though, in antici- 
pation, her sense of humour prompts this lively sally ; yet, 
at the time, her sense of justice, and also her wise kind- 
heartedness, will not see him beaten too unmercifully. 



2 6 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Upon my life, I can see nothing "foolish" in all this; but, 
on the contrary, a sprightly, sensible, quick-witted woman, 
who deserves her husband's confidence — and has it — by her 
faithful, true-hearted allegiance to him ; who secures and pre- 
serves his love by her cheerful spirits, and blithe good-hu- 
mour; and who seconds her husband in all his hospitable, 
peace-making schemes ; for, at the end of the play, she says, 
"Let us every one go honie^ and laugh this sport o'er by a 
country fire — Sir John and ally In short, they are a per- 
fectly worthy couple — worthy of each other, in their good 
temper, good faith, and excellent good sense. To call them 
"the foolish Page, and his no less foolish wife," is no less 
than flat blasphemy against the wisdo77i oi goo d-nai lire. But 
many persons confound good-nature with weakness — often, 
perhaps, with the hope of finding it w^eak enough to be taken 
advantage of. f It is, doubtless, infinitely more easy to write 
a flippant, undervaluing word of one of Shakespeare's char- 
acters than to discern and appreciate its multitudinous beau- 
ties. Both the Pages are people of kind-hearted common 
sense ; which is as far removed from " foolishness " — quite 
as far removed — as a borins: into the mere rules and strict- 
nesses of dramatic art is from a clear perception of the 
poetry, the philosophy, the harmony, the consistency, the 
truth to nature, the knowledge of character, and a hundred 
things beside, that exist in Shakespeare's dramatic art. . . . 

Slender comes out in this play with extraordinary force. 
He and Falstaif. are the persons who at once present them- 
selves to the imagination, wdien it is referred to. What a 
speaking portrait we have of Slender in the conversation be- 
tween Mrs. Quickly and his man. Simple ! His " little wee 
face, with a little yellow beard — a cane -coloured beard." 
He is a " tall fellow, too, of his hands, as any is, between this 
and his head." The humorous, quaint, and witty old Fuller 
says : " Your men that are built six stories high have seldom 
much in their cockloft." But Master Slender hath earned 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

a reputation, at all events, with his serving-man; he hath 
" fought with a warrener." And he doth not hide his pre- 
tensions to valour, especially from the women, or his station 
in society. He takes care that Anne Page shall know he 
" keeps three men and a boy, till his mother be dead ;" and 
that he lives like a ''poor gentleman born." He says this 
before Anne, not to her. 

It is interesting to note the distinction that Shakespeare 
has made in drawing the two fools. Sir Andrew Aguecheek 
and Master Slender. The difference between them seems 
to be that Andrew is stupid, awkward, and incompetent, and 
fails in all cases from lack of ideas to help him in his need: 
if he had these, his stock of conceit would carry him through 
and over any thing; but he is a coward as well as a fool. 
Slender possesses not only the deficiencies of Aguecheek, 
but he is bashful, even to sheepishness. This quality makes 
him uniformly dependent on one or another for support. 
His spirit is so rickety that he cannot trust it alone; and 
yet, withal, in little non-essentials of conduct and character, 
Slender is not so perfect a fool but that he has the tact to 
display his accomplishments to win his mistress's favour. 
Some have not even that wisdom, who would, nevertheless, 
turn up their noses at Master Slender. Having insinuated 
his rank and "possibilities," what love-diplomacy can sur- 
pass the patronizing, and the magnanimous indifference with 
which he introduces the subject of his courage? Anne is 
sent to entreat him to dinner: 

" I pray you, sir, walk in. 

Slender. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruised my shin the 
other day with playing at sword and dagger with a master of fence, — 
three veneys for a dish of stewed prunes ; and, by my troth, I cannot 
abide the smell of hot meat since. Why do your dogs bark ^ot be there 
bears in the town ? 

Anne. I think there are, sir ; I heard them talked of. 

Slender. I love the sport well ; but I shall as soon qitarrel at it as any 
man in England. You are afraid if you see the bear loose, are you not? 



28 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Aime. Ay, indeed, sir. 

Sleitde7\ That 'j meat and d^'ink to me now. I have seen Sackerson 
loose twenty times, and have taken him by the chain ; but, I warrant 
you, the zuome7i have so cried and shrieked at it, that it passed ; but 
woinen^ indeed, can't abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured rough things." 

Does not this precisely tally with Mrs. Quickly's descrip- 
tion of the man, that he " holds up his head, as it were, and 
struts in his gait ?" ... 

That is an excellent touch of worldly prudence on the part 
of Anne's father, by the way, brought in to justify his objec- 
tion to the addresses of Fenton; not only for his "riots 
past and wild societies," his being "galled in his expense," 
which he "seeks to heal" by an alliance with his daughter: 
but Page, moreover, being a plain, unaspiring yeoman, is also 
unfavourable to Fenton, on account of his being ^^ too great 
of birth y This simple, fleeting expression places the whole 
character of the father before us in perfect integrity and con- 
sistency ; and is alone, and in itself, a refutation of Ulrici's 
charge against him, for folly — " the foolish Page !" It is 
worth a whole scene of see-sawing and protesting. It also 
prepares us for Fenton's honest justification of himself 
And here we have one of Shakespeare's lessons in wisdom — 
viz., in the matrimonial contract to avoid every thing in the 
shape of duplicity and mental reservation — most especially 
before the fulfilment of it. This passage in Fenton's court- 
ship is the only one which gives him an interest with us as a 
lover, because it raises him in our esteem ; and with the 
confession, it is natural that Anne should promote his suit. 
In answer to his report of her father's objection to him, that 
" 't is impossible he should love her but as a property," like 
a sensible girl, she candidly replies, " May be he tells you 
true;" and he as candidly and fervently replies : 

*' No, heaven so speed me in my time to come ! 
Albeit, I will confess, thy father's wealth 
Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne, 
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value 



IMTRODUCTIOAL 29 

Than stamps in gold, or sums in sealed bags; 
And 't is the very riches of thyself 
That now I aim at." 

And the consummation of his good sense and steadiness of 
character appears at the close of the play; and Shakespeare's 
own matrimonial morality is displayed, where Fenton suc- 
ceeds in carrying off Anne, in the teeth of Page and his wife 
who each wanted to force her into a money-match. Fenton's 
rebuke is excellent; and the father and mother's reconcilia- 
tion perfectly harmonizes with their frank and generous dis- 
positions. Fenton says : 

" Hear the truth of it. 

You would have married her most shamefully, 

Where there was no proportion held in love. 

* •* * * % * * 

The offence is Jioly that she hath committed; 

And this deceit loses the name of craft, 

Of disobedience, or unduteous title; 

Since therein she doth evitate and shun 

A thousand irreligious cursed hours, 

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.'* 

Next in order comes the good-natured but peppery AVelsh 
parson, Sir Hugh. Like the worthy Parson Adams, in Field- 
ing's Joseph Aiidrews^ he is thrown into various undigni- 
fied attitudes by the author ; and although we laugh with 
and sometimes at him, yet Shakespeare has never once 
committed his character in such a way that we should refuse 
cordially to grasp his hand. The country parish priests in 
those days were a different class of men from the present 
members of the Establishment : nevertheless, some scattered 
remnants of the old brotherhood may still be met with in 
those secluded villages where the high post and railroads 
swerve in the distance: men of almost indiscriminate social- 
ity, taking an inoffensive part in the pastimes and homely 
mirth of the parishioners. I knew a gentleman who well 
remembered Dr. Young, the eminent author of the Night 
Thoughts^ in his rectory at Welwyn, in Hertfordshire. He 



9 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



o 



had dined at his table on the Sunday, when he and any ot 
his schoolfellows had acquitted themselves creditably during 
the week at the grammar-school. Among other personal 
anecdotes, he told me that he had constantly seen him play- 
ing at bowls on the Sunday, after he had preached the words 
of peace, and good-will, and eternal salvation to his flock. 
He not only tolerated, but even promoted, that harmless 
recreation ; at the same time he had a keen eye and a re- 
proof for all who were truants at the hour of prayer. 

Sir Hugh Evans stands not aloof from the plot to get Anne 
a good husband j and he is master of the band of fairies to 
pinch and worry the fat knight in the revelry under " Heme's 
oak.'' 

" Trib, trib, fairies ; come, and remember your parts ; be pold, I pray 
you; follow me into the pit; and when I give the watch-'ords, do as I 
pid you : come, come ; trib, trib !" 

And he was an actor, too, as well as manager of the revels; 
for Falstafif says while they are tormenting him : " Heavens 
defend me from that Welsh fairy ! lest he transform me into 
a piece of cheese !" Even in the noted scene of the duel 
with Doctor Caius, although the honest preacher is forced 
into a ludicrous and "unhandsome fix" by the hoax of mine 
host of the Garter, yet our kindly feeling for Sir Hugh re- 
mains unimpaired. It is true, he waxeth into a tremendous 
Welsh passion: he is full of "melancholies" and "tremplings 
of mind;" moreover, not being a professed duellist, his self- 
possession is not conspicuous: he sings a scrap of a madrigal 
and a line of a psalm, and mixes both. 

" Pless my soul ! how full of cholers I am, and tremplings of mind ! — 
I shall be glad if he have deceived me. How melancholies I am ! pless 
my soul ! 

\Sings\ 'To shallow rivers, to whose falls.' 

Mercy on me ! I have great dispositions to cry. 

\Sings\ ' Melodious pirds sing madrigals, 
When as I sat in Pabylon, — 
And a thousand fragrant posies.'" 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

But when the belh'gerents do meet, and he finds that they 
have been fooled by the whole party, he is the one to pre- 
serve their mutual self-respect. 

"Pray you, let us not be laughing-stogs to other men's humours; I 
desire you iii friendship ; and I will one way or other make you amends. 
He has made us his vlouting-stog ; and let us knog our prains together, 
to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging companion, the host of 
the Garter." 

And the way in which he revenges himself is — like a prac- 
tical teacher of the " Sermon on the Mount " — to come and 
put the host on his guard against trusting the Germans with 
his horses. ... 

But although a "subordinate character," how very impor- 
tant a person in this play is Mistress Quickly, the house- 
keeper to Doctor Caius; or, as Sir Hugh designates her, 
" his nurse, or his dry-nurse, or his cook, or his laundry, his 
washer, or his wringer !" What a perfect specimen she is of 
a fussy, busy-bodying old woman! "That foolish carrion, 
Mrs. Quickly," as Mrs. Page calls her; making herself neces- 
sary to all, by reason of her fussiness; and conspicuous, by 
reason of her folly. A large family — the race of the Quick- 
lies! Our Mrs. Quickly, the type of the whole breed, meddles 
and " trepots " in every one's affairs : with the seriousness 
and sincere dealing of a diplomatist, she acts the go-between 
for Falstaff with the two merry wives; she courts i\nne Page 
for her master, undertaking the same office for Slender. 
She favours the suit of Fenton; and if the Welsh parson had 
turned an eye of favour upon the yeoman's pretty daughter, 
she would have played the hymeneal Hebe to him too. Her 
whole character for mere busy-bodying, and not from any 
active kindness of heart — for they who are sweet to all alike 
have no principle worth a button — her whole character is 
comprised in that one little speech in the 4th scene of the 
3d act, when Fenton gives her the ring for his " sweet Nan." 
After he has gone out, she says: 



32 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR 



" Now heaven send thee good fortune ! [She would have uttered the 
same benediction for Slender.] A kind heart he hath ; a woman would 
run through fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet, I would my 
master had Mistress Anne ; or I would Master Slender had her ; or, in 
sooth, I would Master Fenton had her. I will do what I can for them 
all three : for so I have promised, and I '11 be as good as my word ; but 
speciously for Master Fenton." 

He was the last applicant to, and had paid her. . . . 

Like a true potterer, she interferes. in every conversation, 
and elbows herself in wherever she sees business going on. 
Sir Hugh cannot even examine the little boy Page in his 
Latin exercise but she musi put in her comments. That lit- 
tle scene, by the w^ay (the first of the 4th act), is an amusing 
specimen of what might be styled ^'closet comedy," and is an 
additional illustration of the farcical character of the woman. 

Warton calls the Merry Wives of Windsor " the most com- 
plete specimen of Shakespeare's comic powers." Had he 
said low comic, humorous, or farcical powers, w^e should per- 
haps acknowledge the dictum of the critic. But although 
there is as much broad fun in the Tzvelfth Nighty and in the 
Much Ado About Nothing, there is also a considerably stronger 
infusion of the most refined and quintessentialized wit in those 
two plays — an absolute desideratum in the legitimate comedy 
— to say nothing of the poetry and the sentiment, sublimat- 
ing and imparting the most delicate rainbow tints to all that 
is graceful, and passionate, and lovely in human nature. 
We do not expect, and we do not meet with, these qualities 
in the present comedy. Yet the Merry Wives of Windsor is 
a wonderful production. It is all movement and variety, 
from the first scene to the very last; and the last ends in a 
rich piece of romance. Dr. Johnson is right in his estimate 
when he says, " Its general pow'er, that power by which works 
of genius shall finally be tried, is such that perhaps it never 
yet had reader or spectator who did not think it too soon at 
an end." 



INTRODUCTION. 33 



\Froi7i Dowden^s ^^ Skakspere.''^^] 
From among the plays so bright, so tender, so gracious, 
of these years [1598-1601], one play — the Merry Wives of 
Windsor — stands apart with a unique character. It is essen- 
tially prosaic, and is indeed the only play of Shakspere writ- 
ten almost wholly in prose. There is no reason why we 
should refuse to accept the tradition put upon record by 
Dennis and by Rowe that the Merry Wives was written by 
Shakspere upon compulsion, by order of Elizabeth, who, in 
her lust for gross mirth, required the poet to expose his Fal- 
staff to ridicule by exhibiting him, the most delightful of 
egoists, in love. Shakspere yielded to the necessity. His 
Merchant of Venice might pass well enough with the miscel- 
laneous gathering of upper, middle, and lower classes which 
crowded to a public theatre. Now he had to cater specially 
for gentle-folk and for a queen. And knowing how to please 
every class of spectators, he knew how to hit off the taste of 
" the barbarian.'' The Merry Wives of Whidsor is a play 
written expressly for the barbarian aristocrats with their 
hatred of ideas, their insensibility to beauty, their hard effi- 
cient manners, and their demand for impropriety. The good 
folk of London liked to see a prince or a duke, and they 
liked to see him made gracious and generous. These royal 
and noble persons at Windsor wished to see the interior life 
of country gentlemen of the middle class, and to see the 
women of the middle class with their excellent bourgeois 
morals, and rough, jocose ways. The comedy of hearing a 
French physician and a Welsh parson speak broken English 
was appreciated by these spectators, who uttered their moth- 
er-tongue with exemplary accent. Shakspere did not make 
a grievance of his task. He threw himself into it with spirit, 
and despatched his work quickly — in fourteen days^ if w^e ac- 

* Shakspere: a Critical Study of his Mind and Arty by Edward Dow- 
den : American ed. (New York, 1881), p. 328 fol. 

c 



34 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

cept the tradition. But Falstaff he was not prepared to re- 
call from heaven or from hell. He dressed up a fat rogue, 
brought forward for the occasion from the back premises of 
the poet's imagination, in Falstaff's clothes j he allowed per- 
sons and places and times to jumble themselves up as they 
pleased; he made it impossible for the most laborious nine- 
teenth-century critic to patch on the Merry Wives to Henry 
IV. But the Queen and her court laughed as the buck- 
basket was emptied into the ditch, no more suspecting that 
its gross lading was not the incomparable jester of Eastcheap 
than Ford suspected the woman with a great beard to be 
other than tlie veritable Dame Pratt.^ 

* With respect to the difficulty of identifying the characters of Mrs. 
Quickly, Pistol, Bardolph, and Sir John with the persons bearing the 
same names in the historical plays, see Mr. Halliwell's introduction to 
The First Sketch of the Merry Wives of Windsor (Sh. Soc. 1 842). My 
impression of this play is confirmed by that of competent critics. Mr. 
Hudson writes: *'That the free impulse of Shakespeare's genius, without 
suggestion or inducement from any other source, could have led him to 
put Falstaff through such a series of uncharacteristic delusions and col- 
lapses is to me well-nigh incredible" {Shakespeare: his Z?)^, etc., vol. i. 
p. 298). See also Hazlitt's criticism of the play. Hartley Coleridge 
writes: **That Queen Bess should have desired to see Falstaff making 
love proves her to have been, as she was, a gross-minded old baggage. 
Shakespeare has evaded the difficulty with great skill. He knew that 
Falstaff could not be in love ; and has mixed but a little, a very little, 
pruritus with his fortune-hunting courtship. But the Falstaff of the 
Mer^y Wives is not the Falstaff of Henry IV. It is a big-bellied impos- 
tor, assuming his name and style, or, at best, it is Falstaff in dotage. 
The Mrs. Quickly of Windsor is not mine hostess of the Boar's Head ; 
but she is a very pleasant, busy, good-natured, unprincipled old woman, 
whom it is impossi])le to be angry with. Shallow should not have left 
his seat in Gloucestershire and his magisterial duties. Ford's jealousy 
is of too serious a complexion for the rest of the play. The merry wives 
are a delightful pair. Methinks I see them, with their comely, middle- 
aged visages, their dainty white ruffs and toys, their half-witch-like conic 
hats, their full farthingales, their neat though not over-slim waists, their 
housewifely keys, their girdles, their sly laughing looks, their apple-red 
cheeks, their brows the lines whereon look more like the work of mirth 



INTRODUCTION. 35 



[From Mr. F. J. Furnivalls Lttroduction to the P/ay.*] 
Of course Shakspere could n't make Falstaff really in love, 
or the man would have been redeemed by it. Even if he 
had been made a fool of in the process, love must have lift- 
ed h*im out of the degradation to which he had sunk; and 
though he had been made a fool of, we should have had to 
respect him. But he was past redemption. However, as 
the order was grven, Shakspere had to carry it out. With 
whom could he make Falstaff in love ? With women of hidi 

o 

birth and noble life, such as the ladies and gentlewomen of 
Elizabeth's court whom Harrison so well describes, pp. 271-2 
of my edition? Surely not. With the Mrs. Quicklys and 
Dame Ursulas he 'd been already shown. So there were but 
the middle-class townsfolk left; and Shakspere accordingly 
takes them, and shows Falstaff baffled, mocked, befooled by 
these country burgess wives whom as a courtier he despised. 
Through self-conceit he loses his valued wit, and is turned 
into the most despicable of creatures, a pander, and an un- 
successful pander too. Even his men. Pistol and Nym, re- 
fuse to help him in his new form of baseness, which ends in 
his being both degraded and ridiculed. In this play, too, is 
ridiculed the old aristocratic notion of all citizens' wives 
being at well-born men's disposal. Compare the lesson of 
A// 's Well. And we 're also shown, as in iwelfth-Night, the 
degradation of one class of the professed representative of 
chivalry, the knight, the professional soldier, debauched by 
self-indulgence and want of work during peace. Falstaff gets 
vain too. He really believes he 's made a conquest of the 
v/omen, and like Richard the Third says he '11 make more 

than years. And sweet Anne Page — she is a pretty little creature whom 
one would like to take on one's knee " (Essays and Marginalia, vol. ii. 
PP- 133* 134)- It is noteworthy that Maurice Morgann, in his essay on 
Falstaff, avoids the Merry Wives. 

* The Leopold Shakspere (London, 1877), p. I. fol. 



36 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



of his old body than he has done. He also loses his shrewd- 
ness, swallows all Ford's praise of him, and believes he can 
do as he likes with Mrs. Fordj just as if she were Mrs. Quickly 
or old Dame Ursula. In his love-making he 's frank and 
business-like; he makes no pretence of romance, or being 
one of those lisping hawthorn buds that smell like Bucklers- 
bury in simple time. His only weapons are his power to 
make Mrs. Ford " my lady," were but her husband dead, 
and his flattery ; wit he does n't try. In his description of 
the outcomes of his first and second attempts at seduction, 
we have the old humour as rich as ever; while at the end of 
his third attempt, he does begin to perceive that he is made 
an ass, and how wit may be made a Jack-o'-Lent w^ien it is 
upon alien employment. He has laid his brain in the sun 
and dried it. He is ridden with a Welsh goat too. He is 
dejected, and not able to answer the Welsh flannel. Though 
he does get a laugh at Page and his wife, he has no hand in 
raising it. The only folk he can chaff and beat are Slender, 
in act i. sc. i., and Simple. All that remains for him is for 
Theobald to make him babble of green fields, and then leave 
the world that he 's so abused and amused. But we must 
not let the offensiveness of Falstaff's part in the play repre- 
sent the Merry Wives to us, any more than Venus's lust 
does Shakspere's first poem. The play is like Fenton; it 
"smells April and May." It has the bright, healthy country 
air all through it: Windsor Park with its elms, the glad light- 
green of its beeches, its ferns, and deer. There is coursing 
and hawking, Datchet Mead, and the silver Thames, and 

though not 

*' The white feet of laughing girls 
Whose sires have march'd to Rome," 

yet those of stout, bare-legged, bare-armed English wenches 
plying their washing- trade. There 's a healthy moral as 
well : " Wives may be merry and yet honest too." The lewd 
court hanger-on, whose wit always mastered men, is outwitted 



INTRO D UCTION. 



37 



and routed by Windsor wives. The play is slight and thin. 
It is only merry; there 's no pathos in it; but it is admirably 
constructed. The double plot is worked without a hitch; the 
situations are most comical and first-rate. Still its tone is 
lower than in both earlier and later work. It is Shakspere's 
only play of contemporary manners and direct sketch of 
middle-class English life. Cotswold is there as in 2 He?iry 
IV.^ and Shallow (Sir Thomas Lucy) and his nephew, coun- 
try justices and asses, as some of the class still are. There 
are no grandees in it, though we have reflections of the 
court ; the use of Windsor traditions in it points to a per- 
formance of the play at Windsor. There was a grand one 
(by great personages) at Frogmore in the last century. The 
short time in which it was written explains the slightness of 
the play, and the great quantity of prose in it. There 's hard- 
ly any verse except for Teuton's love and the Elf scene. To 
me, born and bred within five miles of its scene, and to whom 
Windsor Park, Datchet Mead, and the Thames have been 
dear since my childhood, the play has of course a special 
attraction. The sweetness of ^^ sweet Anne"^ Page" is all 
through it. A choice bud in the rose-bud garden of girls of 
Shakspere's time, she is, this young heiress, not seventeen, 
pretty virginity, brown-haired, small-voiced, whose words are 
so few, yet whose presence is felt all through the play. 
True to her love she is, ready-witted almost as Portia; duti- 
ful to her parents, so far as she should be, and then disobey- 
ing them for the higher law of love. Her real value is shown 
by the efforts of her three lovers to get her. Why, oh why, 
didn't Shakspere give us a separate scene with her and 
Caius, and then with all three lovers together, and let her 
play them off one against the other? He had n't yet come 
to his Beatrice time. Fenton is a gay, wild young fellow, 
like Bassanio oi The Merchant, He meant to marry for 

* " It has always pleased me that Shakspere gave his own middle-class 
English heroine his own wife's name." — Constance O'Brien. 



38 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

money, but is won from it by love. He 's frank and resolute, 
a friend of the host too. Many a merry night had they had, 
we may be sure, at the Garter, so named, no doubt, from its 
Order, founded at Windsor. The young lover, with his eyes 
of youth and his writing verse, brings verse into the play, 
and his noble nature is shown in his defence of his love 
Anne's elopement: 

*' The offence is holy that she hath committed," etc. 

Slender is the best-worked figure in the play, although •' that 
Slender, though well-landed, is an idiot.' One need not do 
more than refer to Simple's description of him, of his willing- 
ness to marry Anne upon any reasonable commands, to his 
delightfully inimitable scenes with Anne herself, and then 
finding out that at Eton she 's a great lubberly boy. The 
mixture of the Welshman, the Frenchman, and the German, 
points to the greater freedom of intercourse in Elizabeth's 
days, while the individualities of Caius with his " It is not 
jealous in France," and of Evans, who may represent the 
Welsh schoolmaster at Stratford in Shakspere's time, with 
his " Well, I will smite his noddle," are well kept up.* 
Shakspere's sketches of the Kelts — Glendower, Fluellen, 
Lear — should be noted by the student of races. The host 
has some of the characteristics of Chaucer's host in the Can- 
terbury Tales. Though he does talk like Pistol, he is yet a 
genial, good-hearted fellow. He keeps peace b'etween Caius 
and Evans, as Harry Bailey did between the quarrelsome 
pilgrims. He helps the young lovers, Fenton and Anne. 
There 's a touch of poetry in his nature ; he 's evidently, too, 
the centre of sociability in his town, as country innkeepers 
so often are. Although he, after the manner of his craft, 
means to overcharge his customers, they cheat him. 

* That the Welshman leaves off his dialect, and talks good English 
when he speaks in verse, is a necessity of art. Welsh-English would 
have spoiled the poetry. 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



DRAMA TIS PERSONS. 





--S^^^^^^is^^g^^^- '"^^ " 



PART OF WINDSOR CASTLE, BUILT IN THE TIME OF ELIZABETH. 



ACT I. 

Scene I. Wmdso7\ Before Page's House. 
Enter Justice Shallow, Slender, and Sir Hugh Evans. 

Shallow. Sir Hugh, persuade me not ; I will make a Star- 
chamber matter of it. If he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs, 
he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire. 

Slender. In the county of Gloucester, justice of peace and 
coram. 

Shallow. Ay, cousin Slender, and custalorum. 

Slender. Ay, and ratolorum too ; and a gentleman born, 
master parson ; who writes himself armigero, in any bill, 
warrant, quittance, or obligation, armigero. 

Shallow. Ay, that I do ; and have done any time these 
three hundred years. J^a 



42 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Slender. All his successors gone before him hath done 't, 
and all his ancestors that come after him may ; they may 
<rive the dozen white luces in their coat. 

Shallow. It is an old coat. 

Evans. The dozen white louses do become an old coat 
well : it agrees well, passant ; it is a familiar beast to man, 
and signifies love. 

Shallow. The luce is the fresh fish ; the salt fish is an 
old coat. 20 

Slender. I may quarter, coz. 

Shallow. You may, by marrying. 

Evans, It is marring indeed, if he quarter it. 

Shallow. Not a whit. 

Evans. Yes, py'r lady j if he has a quarter of your coat, 
there is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures : 
but that is all one. If Sir John Falstaffhave committed dis- 
paragements unto you, I am of the church, and will be glad 
to do my benevolence to make atonements and compremises 
between you. 30 

Shallow. The council shall hear it ; it is a riot. 

Evans. It is not meet the council hear a riot ; there is no 
fear of Got in a riot. The council, look you, shall desire to 
hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot ; take your viza- 
ments in that. 

Shallow. Ha ! o' my life, if I were young again, the swords 
should end it. 

Evans. It is petter that friends is the sword, and end it ; 
and there is also another device in my prain, which perad- 
venture prings goot discretions with it : there is Anne Page, 
which is daughter to Master George Page, which is pretty 
virginity. 42 

Slender. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and 
speaks small like a woman. 

Evans. It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as 
you will desire ; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and 



ACT I. SCENE I. 43 

gold and silver, is her grandsire upon his death's-bed — Got 
deliver to a joyful resurrections ! — give, when she is able to 
overtake seventeen years old. It were a goot motion if we 
leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage be- 
tween Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page. 51 

Shallow. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred 
pound ? 

Evans. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny. 

Shallow. I know the young gentlewoman ; she has good 
gifts. 

Evans. Seven hundred pounds and possibilities is goot 
gifts. 

Shallow. Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Fal- 
staff there ? 60 

Evans. Shall I tell you a lie ? I do despise a liar as I do 
despise one that is false, or as I despise one that is not true. 
The knight, Sir John, is there ; and, I beseech you, be ruled 
by your well-willers. I will peat the door for Master Page. — 
YK?iocks.'\ What, hoa ! Got pless your house here ! 

Page. [ Withml Who 's there 1 

Enter Page. 

Evans. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and Jus- 
tice Shallow; and here young Master Slender, that perad- 
ventures shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your 
likings. 70 

Page. I am glad to see your worships well. — I thank you 
for my venison, Master Shallow. 

Shallow. Master Page, I am glad to see you; much good 
do it your good heart! I wished your venison better; it was 
ill killed. — How doth good Mistress Page ? — and I thank you 
always with my heart, la ! with my heart. 

Page. Sir, I thank you. 

Shallow. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do. 

Page. I am glad to see you, good Master Slender. 



44 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Slender. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say 
he was outrun on Cotsall. 8i 

Page. It could not be judged, sir. 

Slender. You '11 not confess, you '11 not confess. 

Shallow. That he will not, — 'T is your fault, 'tis your fault ; 
't is a good dog. 

Page. A cur, sir. 

Shallow. Sir, he 's a good dog, and a fair dog ; can there 
be more said? he is good and fair. Is Sir John Falstaff here ? 

Page. Sir, he is within ; and I would I could do a good 
office between you. 90 

Evans. It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak. 

Shallow. He hath wronged me. Master Page. 

Page. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it. 

Shallow. If it be confessed, it is not redressed ; is not that 
so. Master Page ? He hath wronged me ; indeed he hath ; 
at a word, he hath, believe me: Robert Shallow, esquire, saith, 
he is wTonged. 

Page. Here comes Sir John. 

Enter Sir John Falstaff, Bardolph, Nym, a7id Pistol. 

Falstaff. Now, Master Shallow, you '11 complain of me to 
the king? 100 

Shallow. Knight, you have beaten my men, killed my deer, 
and broke open my lodge. 

Falstaff. But not kissed your keeper's daughter ? 

Shallow. Tut, a pin ! this shall be answered. 

Falstaff. I will answer it straight ; I have done all this. 
That is now answered. 

Shallow. The council shall know this. 

Falstaff. 'T were better for you if it were known in counsel ; 
you '11 be laughed at. 

Evans. Pauca verba, Sir John ; goot worts. no 

Falstaff. Good worts? good cabbage! — Slender, I broke 
your head ; what matter have you against me ? 



ACT I. SCENE I. 45 

Slender, Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you, 
and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym, and 
Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me drunk^ 
and afterwards picked my pockets. 

Ba7'dolph. You Banbury cheese ! 

Slender. Ay, it is no matter. 

Pistol. How now, Mephostophilus ! 

Slt7ider, Ay, it is no matter. . 120 

Nym. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca ; slice ! that 's my humour. 

Slender. Where's Simple, my man t — Can you tell, cousin 1 

Evans. Peace, I pray you. Now let us understand. There 
is three umpires in this matter, as I understand ; that is. Mas- 
ter Page, fidelicet Master Page ; and there is myself, fideli- 
cet myself; and- the three party is, lastly and finally, mine 
host of the Garter. 

Page. We three, to hear it and end it between them. 

Evans. Fery goot ; I will make a prief of it in my note- 
book, and we will afterwards ork upon the cause with as 
great discreetly as we can. 131 

Falstaff. Pistol ! 

Pistol. He hears with ears. 

Evans. The tevil and his tarn ! what phrase is this, he 
hears with ear ? why, it is affectations. 

Falstaff. Pistol, did you pick Master Slender's purse ? 

Slender. Ay, by these gloves, did he, or I would I might 
never come in mine own great chamber again else, of seven 
groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward shovel-boards, that 
cost me two shillings and two pence a-piece of Yead Miller, 
by these gloves. 141 

Falstaff. Is this true, Pistol ? 

Evans. No ; it is false, if it is a pick-purse. 

Pistol. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner! — Sir John and master 
mine, 
I combat challenge of this latten bilbo. — 
Word of denial in thy labras here ! 
Word of denial ! froth and scum, thou liest ! 



46 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Slender. By these gloves, then, 't was he. 

Nym. Be avised, sir, and pass good humours : I will say 
marry trap with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on me ; 
that is the very note of it. 151 

Slender. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it ; for 
though I cannot remember what I did when you made me 
drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass. 

Falstaff. What say you, Scarlet and John ? 

Bardolph. Why, sir, for my part, I say the gentleman had 
drunk himself out of his five sentences. 

Evans. It is his five senses; fie, what the ignorance is ! 

Bardolph. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashiered ; 
and so conclusions passed the careers. 160 

Slender. Ay, you spake in Latin then too ; but 'tis no mat- 
ter. I '11 ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest, 
civil, godly company, for this trick. If I be drunk, I '11 be 
drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with 
drunken knaves. 

Evans. So Got udge me, that is a virtuous mind. 

Falstaff. You hear all these matters denied, gentlemen ; 
you hear it. 

Enter Anne Page, with wine; Mistress Ford afid Mis- 
tress Vag'e, following. 

Page. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink with- 
in. [^Exit Anne Page. 

Slender. O heaven ! this is Mistress Anne Page. rji 

Page, How now. Mistress Ford ! 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well 
met: by your leave, good mistress. \Kisses her. 

Page. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. — Come, we have 
a hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we 
shall drink down all unkindness. 

{^Exeunt all except Shallow^ Slender^ and Evans. 

Slender. I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book 
of Songs and Sonnets here. — 



ACT I, SCENE I, 47 



Enter Simple. 

How now, Simple! where have you been? I must wait on 
myself, must I? You have not the Book of Riddles about 
you, have you? 182 

Simple, Book of Riddles ! why, did you not lend it to Alice 
Shortcake upon All-hallowmas last, a fortnight afore Mich- 
aelmas? 

Shallow. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word 
with you, coz ; marry, this, coz : there is, as 't were, a tender, 
a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here. Do you 
understand me? 

Slender. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, 
I shall do that that is reason. 191 

Shallow. Nay, but understand me. 

Sle?ider. So I do, sir, 

Evans. Give ear to his motions, Master Slender. I will 
description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it. 

Slender, Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says. I pray 
you, pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country, sim- 
ple though I stand here. 

Evans. But that is not the question ; the question is con- 
cerning your marriage. 200 

Shallow. Ay, there 's the point, sir, 

Evans, Marry, is it, the very point of it; to Mistress Anne 
Page. 

Slender, Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any reason- 
able demands. 

Evans. But can you affection the oman ? Let us com- 
mand to know that of your mouth or of your lips ; for divers 
philosophers hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth. There- 
fore, precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid ? 

Shallow. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her? 

Slender, I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become one that 
would do reason. 212 



48 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Evans. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies ! you must speak 
possitable, if you can carry her your desires towards her. 

Shallow. That you must. Will you, upon good dowry, 
marry her? 

Slender. I will do a greater thing than that, upon your re- 
quest, cousin, in any reason. 

Shallow. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz ; what 
I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid ? 220 

Slender. I will marry her, sir, at your request ; but if there 
be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease 
it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and have 
more occasion to know one another. I hope, upon familiarity 
will grow more contempt : but if you say, ' Marry her,' I will 
marry her ; that I am freely dissolved, and dissolutely. 

Evans. It is a fery discretion answer ; save the fall is in 
the ort dissolutely : the ort is, according to our meaning, 
resolutely. His meaning is goot. 

Shallow. Ay, I think my cousin meant well. 230 

Slender. Ay, or else I would I might be hanged, la ! 

Shallow. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. — 

Re-enter Anne Page. 

Would I were young for your sake, Mistress Anne ! 

Anne. The dinner is on the table ; my father desires your 
worships' company. 

Shallow. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne. 

Evans. Od's plessed will ! I will not be absence at the 
grace. \_Exeiint Shallow and Evans. 

Anne. Will't please your worship to come in, sir? 

Slender. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very 
well. 241 

Anne. The dinner attends you, sir. 

Slender. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. — Go, 
sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin Shal- 
low. — \^Exit Simple.'] A justice of peace sometimes may be 



ACT /. SCENE I. 



49 



beholding to his friend for a man. I keep but three men 
and a boy yet, till my mother be dead ; but what though ? 
yet I live like a poor gentleman born. 

Anne. I may not go in without your worship ; they will 
not sit till you come. 250 

Slender, I' faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much 
as though I did. 

Anne. I pray you, sir, walk in. 

Slender. I had rather walk liere, I thank you. I bruised 
my shin the other day with playing at sword and dagger 
with a master of fence — three veneys for a dish of stewed 
prunes — and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot 
meat since. Why do your dogs bark so ? be there bears i' the 
town? 

Amie. I think there are, sir; I heard them talked of. 

Slender. I love the sport w^ell ; but I shall as soon quarrel 
at it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the 
bear loose, are you not ? 263 

Anne. iVy, indeed, sir. 

Slender. That 's meat and drink to me, now. I have seen 
Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the 
chain; but, I warrant you, the women have so cried and 
shrieked at it, that it passed : but w^omen, indeed, cannot 
abide 'em ; they are very ill-favoured rough things. 

Re-enter Page. 

Page. Come, gentle Master Slender, come ; we stay for 
you. 271 

Slender. I '11 eat nothing, I thank you, sir. 

Page. By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir! come, 
come. 

Slender. Nay, pray you, lead the wa3^ 

Page. Come on, sir. 

Slender. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first, 

Anne, Not I, sir; pray you, keep on. 

D 



50 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Slender. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la 1 I will not do 
you that wrong. 280 

Anne. I pray you, sir. 

Slender. I '11 rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You 
do yourself wrong, indeed, la 1 \Exeunt, 

Scene II. The Same. 
Enter Sir Hugh Evans and Simple. 

Evans. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius^ house 
which is the way; and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, 
which is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his 
cook, or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer. 

Simple. Well, sir. 

Evans. Nay, it is petter yet. — Give her this letter; for it is 
a Oman that altogether 's acquaintance with Mistress Anne 
Page: and the letter is, to desire and require her to solicit 
your master's desires to Mistress Anne Page. I pray you, 
be gone. I will make an end of my dinner; there 's pippins 
and seese to come. \Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Room in the Garter Inn, 
Enter Falstaff, Host, Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and Robin. 

Ealstaff. Mine host of the Garter ! 

Host. What says my bully- rook .^ speak scholarly and 
wisely. 

Ealstaff. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my 
followers. 

Host. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier: let them wag; 
trot, trot. 

Ealstaff. I sit at ten pounds a week. 

Host. Thou 'rt an emperor, Caesar, Keisar, and Pheezar. 
I will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap: said 
I well, bully Hector? 10 



ACT I, SCENE III. 51 

Falstaff. Do so, good mine host. 

Host. I have spoke; let him follow. — \To Bardolph'\ Let 
me see thee froth and lime. I am at a word; follow. \Exit. 

Falstaff. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade ; 
an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a withered serving-man 
a fresh tapster. Go ; adieu. 

Bardolph. It is a life that I have desired. I will thrive. 

Pistol. O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot 
wield ">. . [Exit Bardolph. 

Nym. He was gotten in drink; is not the humour con- 
ceited.^ 21 

Falstaff. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his 
thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful singer, 
he kept not time. 

Nym. The good humour is to steal at a minim's rest. 

Pistol. Convey, the wise it call. Steal ! foh ! a fico for 
the phrase ! 

Falstaff. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels. 

Pistol. Why, then, let kibes ensue. 

Falstaff. There is no remedy ; I must cony-catch, I must shift. 

Pistol. Young ravens must have food. 31 

Falstaff. Which of you know Ford of this town? 

Pistol. I ken the wight ; he is of substance good. 

Falstaff. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about. 

Pistol. Two yards, and more. 

Falstaff. No quips now, Pistol! — Indeed, I am in the waist 
two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about 
thrift. — Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife : I 
spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she 
gives the leer of invitation. I can construe the action of 
her familiar style ; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, 
to be Englished rightly, is, ' I am Sir John Falstaff's.' 42 

Pistol. He hath studied her well, and translated her ill — 
out of honesty into English. 

Nym. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass? 



52 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



Falstaff, Now, the report goes she -has all the rule of her 
husband's purse ; he hath a legion of angels. 

Pistol. As many devils entertain, and ' To her, boy,' say I. 

Nym, The humour rises; it is good: humour me the angels. 

Falstaff, I have writ me here a letter to her: and here 
another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes 
too, examined my parts with most judicious oeillades; some- 
times the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my 
portly belly. 54 

Pistol. Then did the sun on dunghill shine. 

Nyni, I thank thee for that humour. 

Falstaff, O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such 
a greedy intention, that the appetite of her eye did seem to 
scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here 's another letter 
to her: she bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, 
all gold and bounty. I will be cheater to them both, and 
they shall be exchequers to me ; they shall be my East and 
West Indies, and I will trade to them both. — Go bear thou 
this letter to Mistress Page ; — and thou this to Mistress 
Ford. We will thrive, lads, we will thrive. 

Pistol. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become, 
And by my side wear steel .^ then, Lucifer take all. 

Nym, I will run no base humour; here, take the humour- 
letter. I will keep the haviour of reputation. 

Falstaff. [To Robin\ Hold, sirrah, bear you these letters 
tightly ; 70 

Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores. — 
Rogues, hence, avaunt ! vanish like hailstones, go ; 
Trudge, plod away o' the hoof; seek shelter, pack! 
Falstaff will learn the humour of the age, — 
French thrift, you rogues; myself and skirted page. 

\Exeunt Falstaff and Robin. 

Pistol. Let vultures gripe thy guts ! for gourd and fullam 
holds. 
And high and low beguiles the rich and poor. 



ACT I. SCENE IV. 



53 



Tester I Ul have in pouch when thou shalt lack, 
Base Phrygian Turk! 

Nym, I have operations in my head which be humours 
of revenge. 8i 

Pistol. Wilt thou revenge ? 

Nym. By welkin and her star! 

PistoL With wit or steel? 

Nym. With both the humours, I \ 

I will discuss the humour of this love to Page. 

PistoL And I to Ford shall eke unfold 
How Falstaff, varlet vile, 
His dove will prove, his gold will hold. 
And his soft couch defile. 

Nym. My humour shall not cool. I will incense Page to 
deal with poison ; I will possess him with yellowness, for 
the revolt of mine is dangerous: that is my true humour. 

Pistol. Thou art the Mars of malecontents. I second 
thee; troop on. {Exeunt, 

Scene IV. A Room i7t Doctor Caius's House. 
Enter Mistress Quickly, Simple, and Rugby. 

Quickly. What, John Rugby! I pray thee, go to the case- 
ment, and see if you can see my master. Master Doctor Caius, 
coming. If he do, i' faith, and find anybody in the house, 
here will be an old abusing of God's patience and the king's 
English. 

Rugby. I '11 go watch. 

Quickly. Go ; and we '11 have a posset for 't soon at night, 
in faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire. — {Exit Rugby.] 
An honest, wilHng, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come 
in house withal, and, I warrant you, no tell-tale nor no breed- 
bate. His worst fault is, that he is given to prayer; he is 
something peevish that way: but nobody but has his fault; 
but let that pass. — Peter Simple, you say your name is? 13 



54 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Simple. Ay, for fault of a better. 

Quickly. And Master Slender 's your master? 

Si7nple, A}^, forsooth. 

Quickly. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a 
glover's paring-knife? 

Simple. No, forsooth; he hath but a little wee face, with 
a little yellow beard, a Cain-coloured beard. 20 

Quickly. A softly-sprighted man, is he not? 

Simple. Ay, forsooth : but he is as tall a man of his hands 
as any is between this and his head ; he hath fought with a 
warrener. 

Quickly. How say you? — O, I should remember him; does 
he not hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait? 

Simple. Yes, indeed, does he. 

Quickly. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune ! 
Tell Master Parson Evans I will do what I can for your 
master. Anne is a good girl, and I wish — 30 

Re-enter Rugby. 

Rugby. Out, alas! here comes my master. \^Exit. 

Quickly. We shall all be shent. — Run in here, good young- 
man; go into this closet: he will not stay long. — \^Shuts 
Si7npleinfhecloset.'\ What, John Rugby! John! what, John, I 
say! — Go, John, go inquire for my master; I doubt he be not 
well, that he comes not home. 

[Singing] A?id do7Vfi, down, adown-a, etc. 

E?ifer Doctor Caius. 

Caitcs. Vat is you sing? I do not like dese toys. Pray 
you, go and vetch me in my closet un boitier vert, a box, a 
green-a box: do intend vat I speak? a green-a box. 40 

Quickly. Ay, forsooth; I '11 fetch it you. — [Aside] I am 
glad he went not in himself; if he had found the young 
man, he would have been horn-mad. 

Caius. Fe, fe, fe, fe ! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais 
a la cour — la grande affaire. 



ACT I, SCENE IV. cc 

Quickly, Is it this, sir ? 

Caius. Oui ; mette le au mon pocket : depeche, quickly. 
Vere is dat knave Rugby? 

Quickly What, John Rugby! 'John! 

Re-enter Rugby. 

Rugby. Here, sir ! 50 

Caius. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby. 
Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to the court. 

Rugby. 'T is ready, sir, here in the porch. 

Caius. By my trot, I tarry too long. — Od 's me! Qu'ai- 
j'oublie! dere is some simples in my closet, dat I vill not 
for the varld I shall leave behind. 

Quickly. Ay me, he '11 find the young man there, and be 
mad! 

Caius. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet? — Villain! 
larron! — \Pulling Simple ouf.] Rugby, my rapier! 60 

Quickly. Good master, be content. 

Caius. Wherefore shall I be content-a? 

Quickly. The young man is an honest man. 

Caius. What shall de honest man do in my closet? dere 
is no honest man dat shall come in my closet. 

Qicickly. I beseech you, be not so phlegmatic. Hear the 
truth of it: he came of an errand to me from Parson Huo^h. 

Caius. Veil. 

Simple. Ay, forsooth; to desire her to — 

Quickly. Peace, I pray you. 70 

Caius. Peace-a your tongue. — Speak-a your tale. 

Simple. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to 
speak a good word to Mistress Anne Page for my master 
in the way of marriage. 

Quickly. This is all, indeed, la! but I '11 ne'er put my fin- 
ger in the fire, and need not. 

Caius. Sir Hugh send-a you? — Rugby, bailie me some 
paper. — Tarry you a little-a while. [ Writes. 



56 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Quickly. [Aside to Simple] I am glad he is so quiet; if he 
had been throughly moved, you should have heard him so 
loud and so melancholy. But notwithstanding, man, I '11 
do you your master what good I can : and the very yea and 
the no is, the French doctor, my master, — I may call him my 
master, look you, for I keep his house ; and I wash, wring, 
brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the beds, and 
do all myself, — 86 

Simple [Aside to Quickly] 'T is a great charge to come 
under one body's hand. 

Quickly. [Aside to Simple] Are you avised o' that? you 
shall find it a great charge: and to be up early and down 
late; — but notwithstanding, — to tell you in your ear, — I 
would have no words of it, — my master himself is in love 
with Mistress Anne Page ; but notwithstanding that, I know 
Anne's mind, — that 's neither here nor there. 94 

Caius. You jack-a-nape, give-a this letter to Sir Hugh; by 
gar, it is a shallenge: I will cut his troat in de park; and I 
will teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make. 
You may be gone; it is not good you tarry here. — By gar, 
I will cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a 
stone to trow at his dog. [Exit Simple, 

Quickly. iVlas, he speaks but for his friend. loi 

Caius. It is no matter-a vor dat; do not you tell-a me dat 
I shall have Anne Page for myself.^ By gar, I vill kill de 
Jack priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Jarteer 
to measure our weapon. By gar, I will myself have Anne 
Page. 

Quickly. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well. 
We must give folks leave to prate; what, the good-year! 

Caius. Rugby, come to the court with me. — By gar, if I 
have not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door. 
— Follow my heels, Rugby. [Exeunt Caius ajid Rugby. 

Quickly. You shall have An fool's-head of your own. No, 
I know Anne's mind for that; never a woman in Windsor 



ACT L SCENE IV, 57 

knows more of x^nne's mind than I do, nor can do more 
than I do with her, I thank heaven. 115 

Fe?iton. [ Within'\ Who 's within there ? ho ! 

Quickly, Who 's there, I trow ? Come near the house, I 
pray you. ' 

Enter Fenton. 

Fenton, How now, good woman ! how dost thou ? 

Quickly. The better that it pleases your good worship to ask. 

Fenton. What news ? how does pretty Mistress Anne .^ 121 

Quickly. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and 
gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by 
the way; I praise heaven for it. 

Fenton. Shall I do any good, thinkest thou ? shall I not 
lose my suit ? 

Quickly. Troth, sir, all is in his hands above ; but notwith- 
standing. Master Fenton, I '11 be sworn on a book, she loves 
you. — Have not your worship a wart above your eye ? 

Fenton. Yes, marry, have I; what of that? 130 

Quickly. Well, thereby hangs a tale : good faith, it is such 
another Nan ; but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke 
bread : we had an hour's talk of that wart. I shall never 
laugh but in that maid's company ! But indeed she is given 
too much to allicholy and musing; but for you — well, go to. 

Fe?tton. Well, I shall see her to-day. Hold, there 's 
money for thee ; let me have thy voice in my behalf : if thou 
seest her before me, commend me. 

Quickly. Will I ? i' faith, that we will ; and I will tell your 
worship more of the wart the next time we have confidence, 
and of other wooers. 141 

Fenton. Well, farewell ; I am in great haste now. 

Quickly. Farewell to your worship. — [Exit Fenton^ Truly, 
an honest gentleman : but Anne loves him not; for I know 
Anne's mind as well as another does. — Out upon 't ! what 
have I forgot ? 




ACT II. 

Scene I. Before Page's House, 
Enter Mistress Page, with a letter, 

Mrs. Page, What, have I scaped love-letters in the holi- 
day-time of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them ? 
Let me see. 

[Reads] ^ Ask me no reason why I love you ; for though Love 
use Reason for his physician^ he admits him not for his counsellor. 
You are 7iot young, no moi^e am I ; go to theft, there 's sympathy : 
you are merry, so am I; ha, ha I then there V more sympathy : 
you love sack, ami so do I; would you desire better sympathy 1 
Let it suffice thee. Mistress Page, — at the least, if the love of sol- 
dier ca?t suffice, — that L love thee. L will not say, pity me, — V is 
7wt a soldier-like phrase ; but I say, love me. By me, n 



ACT II. SCENE I. 



59 



Thine own true knight^ 

By day or night., 

Or any kind of light ^ 

With all his might 

For thee to fight, John Falstaff.' 

What a Herod of Jewry is this ! — O wicked, wicked world ! 
One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show himself 
a young gallant ! What an un weighed behaviour hath this 
Flemish drunkard picked — with the devil's name ! — out of 
my conversation, that he dares in this manner assay me ? 
Why, he hath not been thrice in my company ! — What should 
I say to him? — I was then frugal of my mirth. — Heaven for- 
give me ! — Why, I '11 exhibit a bill in the parliament for the 
putting down of men. How shall I be revenged on him ? for 
revenged I will be, as sure as his guts are made of pud- 
dings. 

Enter Mistress Ford. 

M7's, Ford, Mistress Page ! trust me, I was going to your 
house. 

Mrs. Page. And, trust me, I was coming to you. You 
look very ill. 31 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I '11 ne'er believe that; I have to show 
to the contrary. 

Mrs. Page. Faith, but you do, in my mind. 

Mrs. Ford. Well, I do then ; yet I say I could show you 
to the contrary. O Mistress Page, give me some coun- 
sel ! 

Mrs. Page, What 's the matter, woman .^ 

Mrs. Ford. O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect, 
I could come to such honour ! 40 

Mrs. Page. Hang the trifle, w^oman ! take the honour. 
What is it? dispense with trifles ; what is it? 

Mrs. Ford. If I would but go to hell for an eternal mo- 
ment or so, I could be knighted. 

Mrs. Page. What ? thou liest ! Sir Alice Ford ! These 



6o MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

knights will hack ; and so thou shouldst not alter the article 
of thy gentry. 

Mrs. Ford. We burn daylight: here, read, read; perceive 
how I might be knighted. I shall think the worse of fat 
men, as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's 
liking : and yet he would not swear, praised women's mod- 
esty, and gave such orderly and w^ell-behaved reproof to all 
uncomeliness that I would have sworn his disposition would 
have gone to the truth of his words; but they do no more 
adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth Psalm 
to the tune of ' Green Sleeves.' What tempest, I trow, threw 
this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly, ashore at 
Windsor ? How shall I be revenged on him ? I think the 
best way were to entertain him with hope, till the wicked 
fire of lust have melted him in his own grease. — Did you 
ever hear the like ? 6i 

Mrs. Page. Letter for letter, but that the name of Page 
and Ford differs ! — To thy great comfort in this mystery of 
ill opinions, here 's the twin-brother of thy letter; but let 
thine inherit first, for I protest mine never shall. I war- 
rant he hath a thousand of these letters, wnit with blank 
space for different names, — sure, more, — and these are of 
the second edition. He will print them, out of douht; for 
he cares not w^hat he puts into the press, when he would put 
us two. I had rather be a giantess, and lie under Mount Pe- 
lion. Well, I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one 
chaste man. 72 

Mrs. Ford. Why, this is the very same ; the very hand, 
the very words. What doth he think of us 1 

Mrs. Page. Nay, I know not ; it makes me almost ready 
to wrangle with mine own honesty. I '11 entertain myself 
like one that I am not acquainted withal ; for, sure, unless 
he know some strain in me, that I know not myself, he w^ould 
never have boarded me in this fury. 

Mrs. Ford. Boarding call you it? I '11 be sure to keep 
him above deck. 8x 



ACT IL SCENE I. 6l 

Mrs. Page. So will I ; if he come under my hatches, I '11 
never to sea agam. Let 's be revenged on him ; let 's ap- 
point him a meeting, give him a show of comfort in his suit, 
and lead him on with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawned 
his horses to mine host of the Garter. 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I will consent to act any villany against 
him that may not sully the chariness of our honesty. O, 
that my husband saw this letter ! it would give eternal food 
to his jealousy. 90 

Mrs. Page. Why, look where he comes ; and my good man 
too. He 's as far from jealousy as I am from giving him 
cause ; and that I hope is an unmeasurable distance. 

Mrs. Ford. You are the happier woman. 

Mrs. Page. Let 's consult together against this greasy 
knight. Come hither. ■ \They retire. 

Enter Ford ivith Pistol, and Page with Nym. 

Ford. Well, I hope it be not so. 

Pistol. Hope is a curtal dog in some affairs ; Sir John 
affects thy wife. 

Ford. Why, sir, my wife is not young. 100 

Pistol. He wooes both high and low, both rich and poor, 
Both young and old, one with another. Ford. 
He loves the gallimaufry ; Ford, perpend. 

Ford. Love my wife ! 

Pistol. With liver burning hot. Prevent, or go thou, 
Like Sir Actseon he, with Ringwood at thy heels. 
O, odious is the name ! 

Ford. What name, sir? 

Pistol. The horn, I say. Farewell. 
Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot by night : no 
Take heed, ere summer comes or cuckoo-birds do sing. — 
Away, Sir Corporal Nym ! — 
Believe it. Page ; he speaks sense. \Exit. 

Ford. [Aside] I will be patient ; I will find out this. 



62 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Nym. [To Page\ And this is true ; I like not the humour 
of lying. He hath wronged me in some humours ; I should 
have borne the humoured letter to her, but I have a sword, 
and it shall bite upon my necessity. He loves your wife ; 
there 's the short and the long. My name is Corporal 
Nym ; I speak and I avouch; 't is true : my name is Nym, 
and Falstaff loves your wife. Adieu. I love not the hu- 
mour of bread and cheese, and there 's the humour of it. 
Adieu. [Exit. 

Page, The humour of it, quoth a' ! here 's a fellow frights 
English out of his wits. 

Ford. I will seek out Falstaff. 

Page. I never heard such a drawling, affecting rogue. 

Ford. If I do find it, — well. 

Page. I will not believe such a Cataian, though the priest 
o' the town commended him for a true man. 130 

Fof^d. 'T was a good sensible fellow; well. 

Page. How now, Meg ? 

[Mrs. Page and Mrs. Ford come forward. 

Mrs. Page. Whither go you, George ? Hark you. 

Mrs. Ford. How now, sweet Frank ! why art thou melan- 
choly ? 

Ford. I melancholy ! I am not melancholy. — Get you 
home, go. 

Mrs. Ford. Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head. — 
Now, will you go, Mistress Page ? 

Mrs. Page. Have with you. — You '11 come to dinner, 
George. — [Aside to Mrs. Ford'\ Look who comes yonder ; 
she shall be our messenger to this paltry knight. 142 

Mrs. Ford. [Aside to Mrs. Page] Trust me, I thought on 
her ; she '11 fit it. 

Fnter Mistress Quickly. 

Mrs. Page. You are come to see my daughter Anne ? 
Quickly. Ay, forsooth ; and, I pray, how does good Mis- 
tress Anne .'^ 



ACT 11. SCENE L (^2, 

Mrs. Page. Go in with us and see ; we have an hour's talk 
with you. \^Exewit Mrs. Page, Mrs. Ford^ and Mrs. Qtcickly. 

Page. How now, Master Ford ! 150 

Ford. You heard what this knave told me, did you not? 

Page. Yes ; and you heard what the other told me ? 

Ford. Do you think there is any truth in them ? 

Page. Hang 'em, slaves ! I do not think the knight would 
offer it. But these that accuse him in his intent towards our 
wives are a yoke of his discarded men ; very rogues, now 
they be out of service. 

Ford. Were they his men ? 

Page. Marry, w^ere they. 

Ford. I like it never. the better for that. Does he lie at 
the Garter ? i6i 

Page. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend this voy- 
age towards my wife, I would turn her loose to him ; and 
what he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my 
head. 

Ford. I do not misdoubt my wife, but I would be loath 
to turn them together. A man may be too confident. I 
would have nothing lie on my head. I cannot be thus satis- 
fied. 

Page. Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes j 
there is either liquor in his pate or money in his purse 
when he looks so merrily. — 172 

Filter Host. 

How now, mine host! 

Host. How now, bully-rook ! thou 'rt a gentleman. — Ca- 
valero-justice, I say ! 

Enter Shallow. 

Shallow. I follow, mine host, I follow. — Good even and 
twenty, good Master Page ! Master Page, will you go with 
us ? we have sport in hand. 



64 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Host, Tell him, cavalero-justice; tell him, bully-rook. 

Shallow, Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh 
the Welsh priest and Caius the French doctor. iSi 

Ford. Good mine host o' the Garter, a word with you. 

{Drawing him aside. 

Host, What sayest thou, my bully-rook.? 

Shallow. [To Fage\ Will you go with us to behold it 1 My 
merry host hath had the measuring of their weapons, and, I 
think, hath appointed them contrary places ; for, believe me, 
I hear the parson is no jester. Hark, I will tell you what 
our sport shall be. \They converse apart. 

Host. Hast thou no suit against my knight, my guest- 
cavalier? 190 

Ford. None, I protest ; but I '11 give you a pottle of burnt 
sack to give me recourse to him and tell him my name is 
Brook, — only for a jest. 

Host. My hand, bully : thou shalt have egress and regress ; 
— said I well ? — and thy name shall be Brook. It is a merry 
knight. — AVill you go, mynheers? 

Shallozv. Have with you, mine host. 

Page. I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his 
rapier. 199 

Shallow. Tut, sir, I could have told you more. In these 
times 3'Ou stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes, and I 
know not what: 't is the heart. Master Page; 't is here, 't is 
here. I have seen the time, with my long sword I would 
have made you four tall fellows skip like rats. 

Host, Here, boys, here, here ! shall we wag? 

Page. Have with you. — I had rather hear them scold 
than fight. \_Exeunt Host^ Shallow., and Page. 

Ford. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly 
on his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so easily. 
She was in his company at Page's house, and what they 
made there, I know not. Well, I will look further into 't ; 
and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff. If I find her 



ACT II, SCENE II 65 

honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 't is labour 
well bestowed, [^.Exit 



Scene II. A Room in the Garter Inn, 
Better Falstaff and Pistol. 

Falstaff. I will not lend thee a penny. 

Pistol. Why, then the world 's mine oyster, 
Which I with sword will open. 

Falstaff, Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you 
should lay my countenance to pawn ; I have grated upon 
my good friends for three reprieves for you and your coach- 
fellow Nym, or else you had looked through the grate, like a 
geminy of baboons. I am damned in hell for swearing to 
gentlemen my friends, you were good soldiers and tall fel- 
lows; and when Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan, 
I took 't upon mine honour thou hadst it not. n 

Pistol, Didst not thou share? hadst thou not fifteen 
pence? 

Falstaff, Reason, you rogue, reason; thinkest thou I '11 
endanger my soul gratis ? At a word, hang no more about 
me, I am no gibbet for you. Go. A short knife and a 
throng! To your manor of Pickt-hatch ! Go. — You '11 not 
bear a letter for me, you rogue ! you stand upon your honour. 
Why, thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do 
to keep the terms of my honour precise. I, a}^, I myself 
sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand and hid- 
ing mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge, 
and to lurch ; and yet you, rogue, will ensconce your rags, 
your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and your 
bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour ! You 
will not do it, you ! 25 

Pistol, I do relent; what would thou more of man? 

E 



66 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Enter Robin. 

Robi7i. Sir, here ^s a woman would speak with yau. 
Falstaff. Let her approach. 

Enter Mistress Quickly. 

Quickly. Give your worship good morrow. 

Falstaff. Good morrow, good wife. 30 

Quickly. Not so, an 't please your worship. 

Falstaff. Good maid, then. 

Quickly. I 'II be sworn, 
As my mother was, the first hour I was born. 

Falstaff. I do believe the swearer. What with me.^ 

Quickly. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two.^ 

Falstaff. Two thousand, fair woman; and I '11 vouchsafe 
thee the hearing. 

Quickly. There is one INIistress Ford, sir, — I pray, come a 
little nearer this ways. — I myself dwell with Master Doctor 
Caius, — 41 

Falstaff. Well, one Mistress Ford, you say, — 

Quickly. Your worship says very true. — I pray your wor- 
ship, come a little nearer this ways. 

Falstaff. I warrant thee, nobody hears ; — mine own people, 
mine own people. 

Quickly. Are they so? God bless them and make them 
his servants ! 

Falstaff. Well, Mistress Ford, — what of her? 

Quickly. Why, sir, she 's a good creature. Lord, Lord ! 
your worship 's a wanton ! Well, heaven forgive you and all 
of us, I pray ! 52 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford ; come. Mistress Ford, — 

Quickly. Marry, this is the short and the long of it; you 
have brought her into such a canaries as 't is wonderful. 
The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor, 
could never have brought her to such a canary. Yet there 



ACT II. SCENE II. 



67 



has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with their 
coaches, I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after letter, 
gift after gift; smelling so sweetly, all musk, and so rushling, 
I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant terms; 
and in such wine and sugar of the best and the fairest, that 
would have won any woman's heart; and, I warrant you, 
they could never get an eye-wink of her. I had myself 
twenty angels given me this morning; but I defy all angels, 
in any such sort, as they say, but in the way of honesty: and, 
I warrant you, they could never get her so much as sip on a 
cup with the proudest of them all : and yet there has been 
earls, nay, which is more, pensioners; but, I warrant you, all 
is one with her. 70 

Falstaff. But what says she to m,e? be brief, my good she- 
Mercury. 

Qicickly. Marry, she hath received your letter, for the 
which she thanks you a thousand times; and she gives you 
to notify that her husband will be absence from his house 
between ten and eleven. 

Falstaff. Ten and eleven? 

Quickly. Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see 
the picture, she says, that you wot of : Master Ford, her hus- 
band, will be from home. Alas ! the sweet woman leads an 
ill life with him : he 's a very jealousy man ; she leads a very 
frampold life with him, good heart. 82 

Falstaff. Ten and eleven. — Woman, commend me to her; 
I will not fail her. 

Quickly. Why, you say well. But I have another messen- 
ger to your worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty com- 
mendations to you too : and let me tell you in your ear, she 's 
as fartuous a civil modest wife, and one, I tell you, that will 
not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in Wind- 
sor, whoe'er be the other; and she bade me tell your wor- 
ship that her husband is seldom from home, but she hopes 
there will come a time. I never knew a woman so dote upon 
a man : surely I think you have charms, la; yes, in truth. 



68 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Falstaff. Not I, I assure thee ; setting the attraction of my 
good parts aside, I have no other charms. 9S 

Quickly. Blessing on your heart for 't ! 

Falstaff, But, I pray thee, tell me this : has Ford's wife 
and Page's wife acquainted each other how they love me ? 

Quickly. That were a jest indeed ! they have not so little 
grace, I hope; that were a trick indeed ! But Mistress Page 
would desire you to send her your little page, of all loves : 
her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page; 
and truly Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in 
Windsor leads a better life than she does : do what she will, 
say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when she list, 
rise when she list, all is as she will ; and truly she deserves 
it, for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she is one. You 
must send her your page; no remedy. 

Falstaff, Why, I W'ill. 109 

Quickly. Nay, but do so, then : and, look you, he may come 
and go between you both; and in any case have a nay-word, 
that you may know one another's mind, and the boy never 
need to understand any thing; for 't is not good that chil- 
dren should know any wickedness : old folks, you know, 
have discretion, as they say, and know the world. 

Falstaff, Y2lX^ thee well; commend me to them both. 
There 's my purse ; I am yet thy debtor. — Boy, go along with 
this woman. — S^Exeiuit Mistress Quickly and Robing This 
news distracts me ! 

Pistol, This punk is one of Cupid's carriers. — 120 

Clap on more sails ; pursue, up with 3^our fights ! 
Give fire ! she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all ! \Exit, 

Falstaff. Sayest thou so, old Jack.^ go thy ways; I '11 make 
more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look 
after thee? Wilt thou, after the expense of so much money, 
be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee. Let them say 
't is grossly done; so it be fairly done, no matter. 



ACT 11. SCENE II. 69 

Enter Bardolph. 

Bardolph. Sir John, there 's one Master Brook below 
would fain speak with you and be acquainted with you, and 
hath sent your worship a morning's draught of sack. 130 

Falstaff. Brook is his name? 

Bardolph. Ay, sir. 

Falstaff. Call him in. — \Exit Bardolph?^ Such Brooks 
are welcome to me, that overflow such liquor. — Ah, ha ! Mis- 
tress Ford and Mistress Page, have I encompassed you ? go 
to; via ! 

Re-enter Bardolph, ivith Ford disguised. 

Ford. Bless you, sir ! 

Falstaff. And you, sir ! Would you speak with me.^ 

Ford. I make bold to press with so little preparation upon 
you. 140 

Falstaff. You 're welcome. What *s your will ? — Give us 
leave, drawer. \Exit Bardolph. 

Ford. Sir, I am a gentleman ihat have spent much; my 
name is Brook. 

Falstaff. Good Master Brook, I desire more acquaintance 
of you. 

Ford. Good Sir John, I sue for yours; not to charge you, 
for I must let you understand I think myself in better plight 
for a lender than you are : the which hath something em- 
boldened me to this unseasoned intrusion; for they say, if 
money go before, all ways do lie open. 151 

Falstaff. Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on. 

Ford. Troth, and I have a bag of money here troubles 
me; if you will help to bear it, Sir John, take all, or half, for 
easing me of the carriage. 

Falstaff. Sir, I know not how I may deserve to be your 
porter. 

Ford. I will tell you, sir, if you will give me the hearing. 



70 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Fahtaff. Speak, good Master Brook; I shall be glad to be 
your servant. 160 

Ford. Sir, I hear you are a scholar, — I will be brief with 
you, — and you have been a man long known to me, though 
I had never so good means, as desire, to make myself ac- 
quainted with you. I shall discover a thing to you, wherein 
I must very much lay open mine own imperfection; but, 
good Sir John, as you have one eye upon my follies, as you 
hear them unfolded, turn another into the register of your 
own, that I may pass with a reproof the easier, sith you your- 
self know how easy it is to be such an offender. 

Falstaff. Very well, sir; proceed. 170 

Ford. There is a gentlewoman in this town ; her husband's 
name is Ford. 

Falstaff. Well, sir. 

Ford. I have long loved her, and, I protest to you, be- 
stowed much on her; followed her with a doting observance, 
engrossed opportunities to meet her, feed every slight occa- 
sion that could but niggardly give me sight of her; not only 
bought many presents to give her, but have given largely to 
many to know what she would have given; briefly, I have 
pursued her as love hath pursued me, which hath been on 
the wing of all occasions. But whatsoever I have merited, 
either in my mind or in my means, meed, I am sure, I have 
received none, unless experience be a jewel ; that I have pur- 
chased at an infinite rate, and that hath taught me to say this: 
'Love like a shadow flies wke?t siibstance love pursues ; 
Pursuing that that flies ^ and flying what pursues.'' 

Falstaff. Have you received no promise of satisfaction at 
her hands ? 

Ford. Never. 

Falstaff. Have you importuned her to such a purpose } 

Ford. Never. 191 

Falstaff. Of what quality was your love, then ? 

Ford. Like a fair house built on another man's ground; 



ACT II. SCENE II 71 

SO that I have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where 
I erected it. 

Falstaff. To what purpose have you unfolded this to me ? 

Ford, When I have told you that, I have told you all. 
Some say, that though she appear honest to me, yet in other 
places she enlargeth her mirth so far that there is shrewd 
construction made of her. Now, Sir John, here is the heart 
of my purpose : you are a gentleman of excellent breeding, 
admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentic in your 
place and person, generally allowed for your many warlike, 
courtlike, and learned preparations. 

Falstaff. O, sir! 

Fo7'd. Believe it, for you know it. There is money ; spend 
it, spend it; spend more ; spend all I have, only give me so 
much of your time in exchange of it as to lay an amiable 
siege to the honesty of this Ford's wife. Use your art of 
wooing, win her to consent to you ; if any man may, yon 
may as soon as any. 211 

Falstaff, Would it apply well to the vehemency of your 
affection, that I should win what you would enjoy.'* Me- 
thinks you prescribe to yourself very preposterously. 

Ford. O, understand my drift. She dwells so securely on 
the excellency of her honour, that the folly of my soul dares 
not present itself; she is too bright to be looked against, 
Nov/, could I come to her with any detection in my hand, 
my desires had instance and argument to commend them- 
selves; I could drive her then from the ward of her purity,' 
her reputation, her marriage-vow, and a thousand other her 
defences, which now are too-too strongly embattled against 
me. What say you to 't, Sir John .^ 223 

Falstaff. Master Brook, I will first make bold with your 
money; next, give me your hand ; and last, as I am a gen- 
tleman, you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife. 

Ford. O good sir. 
Falstaff. I say you shall. 



72 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



Ford. Want no money, Sir John ; you shall want none. 

Falstaff. Want no Mistress Ford, Master Brook; you shall 
want none. I shall be with her, I may tell you, by her own 
appointment, — even as you came in to me, her assistant or 
go-between parted from me, — I say I shall be with her be- 
tween ten and eleven ; for at. that time the jealous rascally 
knave her husband will be forth. Come you to me at night; 
you shall know how I speed. 

Ford. I am blest in your acquaintance. Do you know 
Ford, sir? , 238 

Falstaff, Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave ! I know him 
not. — Yet I wrong him to call him poor; they say the jeal- 
ous wittolly knave hath masses of money, for the which his 
wife seems to me well-favoured. I will use her as the key of 
the cuckoldly rogue's coffer, and there 's my harvest-home. 

Ford. I would you knew Ford, sir, that you might avoid 
him if you saw him. 245 

Falstaff, Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue! I will 
stare him out of his wits ; I will awe him with my cudgel : 
it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns. Master 
Brook, thou shalt know I will predominate over the peasant, 
and thou shalt lie with his wife. — Come to me soon at night. 
— Ford 's a knave, and I will aggravate his style; thou, Mas- 
ter Brook, shalt know him for knave and cuckold. — Come 
to me soon at night. \Fxit. 

Ford. What a damned Epicurean rascal is this ! My heart 
is ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is improv- 
ident jealousy ? my wife hath sent to him, the hour is fixed, 
the match is made. Would any man have thought this? 
See the hell of having a false woman ! My bed shall be 
abused, my coffers ransacked, my reputation gnawn at ; and 
I shall not only receive this villanous wrong, but stand un- 
der the adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does 
me this wrong. Terms ! names ! Amaimon sounds well, 
Lucifer well, Barbason well; yet they are devils' additions, 



ACT II, SCENE III ^j^ 

the names of fiends: but cuckold! vvittol-cuckold ! the devil 
himself hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass; 
he will trust his wife, he will not be jealous. I will rather 
trust a Fleming with my butter. Parson Hugh the Welsh- 
man with my cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, 
or a thief to walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with 
herself. Then she plots, then she ruminates, then she de- 
vises; and what they think in their hearts they may effect, 
they will break their hearts but they will effect. God be 
praised for my jealousy! — Eleven o'clock the hour. I will 
prevent this, detect my wife, be revenged on Falstaff, and 
laugh at Page. I will about it; better three hours too soon 
than a minute too late. Fie, fie, fie ! cuckold ! cuckold ! cuck- 
old ! [^Exit 

Scene III. A Field near Windsor, 
Enter Caius and Rugby. 

Caius, Jack Rugby I 

Rugby. Sir? 

Cains. Vat is de clock. Jack ? 

Rugby. 'T is past the hour, sir, that Sir Hugh promised to 
meet. 

Caius. By gar, he has save his soul, dat he is no come; 
he has pray his Pible well, dat he is no come. By gar. Jack 
Rugby, he is dead already, if he be come. 

Rugby. Pie is wise, sir; he knew your worship would kill 
him, if he came. lo 

Caius. By gar, de herring is no dead so as I vill kill him. 
Take your rapier. Jack ; I vill tell you how I vill kill him. 

Rugby. Alas, sir, I cannot fence. 

Caius. Villany, take your rapier. 

Rugby. Forbear; here's company. 

E7iter Host, Shallow, Slender, and Page. 
Host. Bless thee, bully doctor ! 



74 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Shallozv. Save yon, Master Doctor Caius ! 

Page. Now, good master doctor ! 

Slender. Give you good morrow, sir. 

Cains. Vat be all you, one, two, tree, four, come for ? 20 

Host. To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee trav- 
erse; to see thee here, to see thee there; to see thee pass 
thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant. 
Is he dead, my Ethiopian ? is he dead, my Francisco ? ha, 
bully ! What says my ^sculapius ? my Galen ? my heart 
of elder ? ha ! is he dead, bully stale ? is he dead ? 

Caius. By gar, he is de coward Jack priest, of de vorld ; 
he is not show his face. 

Host. Thou art a Castilian, King Urinal ! Hector of 
Greece, my boy ! 30 

Cains. I pray you, bear vitness that me have stay six or 
seven, two, tree hours for him, and he is no come. 

Shallow. He is the wiser man, master doctor.^ He is a 
curer of souls, and you a curer of bodies ; if you should fight, 
you go against the hair of your professions. — Is it not true, 
Master Page ? 

Page. Master Shallow, you have yourself been a great 
fighter, though now a man of peace. 

Shallow. Bodykins, Master Page, though I now be old 
and of the peace, if I see a sword out, my finger itches to 
make one. Though we are justices and doctors and church- 
men. Master Page, we have some salt of our youth in us; 
we are the sons of women, INIaster Page. 

Page. 'T is true, Master Shallow. 

Shallow. It will be found so, Master Page. — Master Doc- 
tor Caius, I am come to fetch you home. I am sworn of the 
peace; you have showed yourself a wise physician, and Sir 
Hugh hath shown himself a wise and patient churchman. 
You must go with me, master doctor. 49 

Host. Pardon, guest-justice. — A word, Mounseur Mock- 
water. 



ACT 11. SCENE III. -3 

Cains. Mock-vater ! vat is dat ? 

Host. Mock-water, in our English tongue, is valour, bully. 

Cams. By gar, den, I have as mush mock-vater as de Eng- 
lishman. — Scurvy jack-dog priest ! by gar, me vill cut his 
ears. 

Host. He will clapper-claw thee tightly, bully. 

Caius. Clapper-de-claw! vat is dat.^ 

Host. That is, he will make thee. amends. 

Cains. By gar, me do look he shall clapper-de-claw me; 
for, by gar, me vill have it. 61 

Host. And I will provoke him to 't, or let him w^ag. 

Cains. Me tank you for dat. 

Host. And, moreover, bully, — but first, master guest, and 
Master Page, and eke Cavalero Slender, go you through the 
town to Frogmore. \Aside to them. 

Page. Sir Hugh is there, is he t 

Host. He is there. See what humour he is in, and I will 
bring the doctor about by the fields. Will it do well .^ 

Shallow. We will do it. 70 

Page., Shallow^ a?id Slender. Adieu, good master doctor. 

[Exeunt Page, Shallow, and Slender. 

Caius. By gar, me vill kill de priest, for he speak for a 
jack-a-nape to Anne Page. 

Host. Let him die. Sheathe thy impatience, throw cold 
water on thy choler; go about the fields with me through 
Frogmore. I will bring thee where Mistress Anne Page is, 
at a farm-house a-feasting, and thou shalt woo her. Cried 
game? said I well? 

Caius. By gar, me tank you for dat; by gar, I love you, 
and I shall procure-a you de good guest, de earl, de knight, 
de lords, de gentlemen, my patients. 81 

Host. For the which I will be thy adversary toward Anne 
Page. Said I well ? 

Caius. By gar, 't is good ; veil said. 

Host. Let us wag, then. 

Caius. Come at my heels. Jack Rugby. [Exeunt. 




Nay, keep your way, little gallant (iii. 2. i). 



ACT III. 

Scene I. A Field 7iear Frogmore. 
Enter Sir Hugh Evans and Simple. 

Evans. I pray you now, good Master Slender's serving- 
man, and friend Simple by your name, which way have you 
looked for Master Caius, that calls himself doctor of physic? 

Simple. Marry, sir, the pitty-ward, the park -ward, every 
way ; old Windsor way, and every way but the town way. 

Evans, I most fehemently desire you you will also look 
that way. 

Simple. I will, sir. \Exit 

Evans. Pless my soul, how full of cholers I am, and 
trempling of mind! — I shall be glad if he have deceived 
me. — How melancholies I am! — I will knog his urinals 



ACT III. SCENE I. 77 

about his knave's costard when I have good opportunities 
for the ork. — Pless my soul ! 

[Sings] To shallow rivers, to whose falls 

Melodious birds sings madrigals ; 

There will we make our peds of roses, 

And a thousand fragrant posies. 

To shallow — 
Mercy on me ! I have a great dispositions to cry. — 

[Sings] Melodious birds sing madrigals — 20 

Wheiias I sat in Pabylon — 

And a thousand vag7'am posies. 

2o shallow — 

Re-enter Simple. 

Simple. Yonder he is coming, this way, Sir Hugh. 

Evans. He 's welcome. — 

[Sings] To shallow rivers, to whose falls — ■ 
Heaven prosper the right ! — What weapons is he ? 

Simple. No weapons, sir. There comes my master. Mas- 
ter Shallow, and another gentleman, from Frogmore, over 
the stile, this way. 30 

Evans. Pray you, give me my gown ; or else keep it in 
your arms. 

Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender. 

Shallow. How now, master parson ! Good morrow, good 
Sir Hugh. Keep a gamester from the dice, and a good stu- 
dent from his book, and it is wonderful. 

Slender. [Aside] Ah, sweet Anne Page ! 

Eage. Save you, good Sir Hugh ! 

Evans. Pless you from his mercy sake, all of you I 

Shallow. What, the sword and the word ! do you study 
them both, master parson ? 40 

Page. And youthful still ! in your doublet and hose this 
raw rheumatic day ! 



y8 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Evans. There is reasons and causes for it. 

Page. We are come to you to do a good office, master par- 
son. 

Evans. Fery well; what is it? 

Page. Yonder is a most reverend gentleman, who, belike 
having received wTong by some person, is at most odds with 
his own gravity and patience that ever you saw. 

Shallow. I have lived fourscore years and upward ; I 
never heard a man of his place, gravity^ and learning, so wide 
of his own respect. . 52 

Evajis. What is he ? 

Page. I think you know him ; Master Doctor Caius, the 
renowned French physician. 

Evans. Got's will, and his passion of my heart ! I had as 
lief you would tell me of a mess of porridge. 

Page. Why? 

Eva7is. He has no more knowledge in Hibbocrates and 
Galen, — and he is a knave besides, a cowardly knave as you 
would desires to be acquainted withal. 61 

Page. I warrant you, he 's the man should fight with him. 

Skfider. [Aside] O sweet Anne Page! 

Shallow. It appears so by his weapons. — Keep them asun- 
der. — Here comes Doctor Caius. 

Enter Host, Caius, and Rugby. 

Page. Nay, good master parson, keep in your weapon. 

Shalloiv. So do you, good master doctor. 

Host. Disarm them, and let them question ; let them keep 
their limbs whole and hack our English. 

Cains. I pray you, let-a me speak a w^ord with your ear. 
Verefore vill you not meet-a me ? 71 

Evans. [Aside to Cains] Pray you, use your patience ; in 
good time. 

Cains. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape. 

Evafis. [Aside to Cains] Pray you, let us not be laughing- 



ACT III. SCENE I. yg 

stogs to Other men's humours; I desire you in friendship, 
and I will one way or other make you amends. — [A/oud] I 
will knog your urinals about your knave's cogscomb for miss- 
ing your meetings and appointments. 

Cams. Diable ! Jack Rugby, — mine host de Jarteer, — 
have I not stay for him to kill him ? have I not, at de place 
I did appoint ? 82 

Evans. As I am a Christians soul now, look you, this is 
the place appointed. I '11 be judgment by mine host of the 
Gart-er. 

Host. Peace, I say, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welsh, 
soul-curer and body-curer ! 

Cains. Ay, dat is very good j excellent. 

Host. Peace, I say ! hear mine host of the Garter. Am I 
politic? am I subtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my 
doctor? no; he gives me the potions and the motions. Shall 
I lose my parson, my priest, my Sir Hugh ? no ; he gives me 
the proverbs ancf the no-verbs. — Give me thy hand, terres- 
trial ; so. — Give me thy hand, celestial ; so. — Boys of art, I 
have deceived you both ; I have directed you to wrong 
places : your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and 
let burnt sack be the issue. — Come, lay their swords to 
pawn. — Follow me, lads of peace; follow, follow, follow. 

Shallow. Trust me, a mad host. — Follow, gentlemen, follow. 

Slender. [Aside] O sweet Anne Page! 100 

\Exeunt Shallow^ Slender^ ^<^g^, cin'd Host. 

Cains. Ha, do I perceive dat? have you make-a de sot of 
us, ha, ha? 

Evans. Thi^ is well; he has made us his vlouting-stog. — I 
desire you that we may be friends; and let us knog our 
prains together to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, 
cogging companion, the host of the Garter. 

Cains. By gar, with all my heart. He promise to bring 
me vere is Anne Page; by gar, he deceive me too. 

Evans. Well, I will smite his noddles. — Pray you, follow. 

[Exei0it. 



So MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Scene 1 1. A Street. 
Enter Mistress Page and Robin. 

Mrs. Page. Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were 
wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader. Whether 
had you rather lead mine eyes, or eye your master's .heels ? 

Robin. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man 
than follow him like a dwarf 

Mrs. Page. O, you are a flattering boy; now I see you 'II 
be a courtier. 

Enter Ford. 

Ford. Well met, Mistress Page. Whither go you ? 

M7^s. Page. Truly, sir, to see your wife. Is she at home ? 

Ford. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want 
of company. I think, if your husbands were dead, you two 
would marry. 12 

Mrs. Page. Be sure of that, — two other Busbands. 

Ford. Where had you this pretty weathercock ? 

Mrs. Page. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my 
husband had him of — What do you call your knight's name, 
sirrah J 

Robin. Sir John Falstaff. 

Ford. Sir John Falstaff! 

Mrs. Page. He, he; I can never hit on 's name. — There is 
such a league between my good man and lie 1 Is your wife 
at home indeed ? 22 

Ford. Indeed she is. 

Mrs. Page. By your leave, sir. I am sick till I see her. 

[^Exeimt Mrs. Page and Robin^ 

Ford. Has Page any brains ? hath he any eyes } hath he 
any thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. 
Why, this boy will carry a letter twenty mile, as easy as a 
cannon will shoot point-blank twelve score. He pieces out 
his wife's inclination, he gives her folly motion and advan- 



ACT III. SCENE IL 8l 

tage ; and now she 's going to my wife, and FalstafF's boy 
with her. A man may hear this shower sing in the wind. — 
And FalstafPs boy with her ! — Good plots, they are laid; and 
our revolted wives share damnation together. Well; I will 
take him, then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of 
modesty from the so-seeming Mistress Page, divulge Page 
himself for a secure and wilful Action ; and to these violent 
proceedings all my neighbours shall cry aim. — \Clock strikes^ 
The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me 
search ; there I shall find Falstaff. I shall be rather praised 
for this than mocked; for it is as positive as the earth is 
firm that Falstaff is there. I will go. 41 

E7iter Page, Shallow, Slender, Host, Sir Hugh Evans, 

Caius, and Rugby. 

Shallow^ Page, etc. Well met. Master Ford. 

Ford. Trust me, a good knot. I have good cheer at home, 
and I pray you all go with me. 

Shallow. I must excuse myself, Master Ford. 

Sle?tder. And so must I, sir ; we have appointed to dine 
with Mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more 
money than I '11 speak of. 

Shallow. We have lingered about a match between Anne 
Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have our 
answer. 51 

Slender. I hope I have your good will, father Page. 

Page. You have, Master Slender, I stand wholly for you ; — 
but my wife, master doctor, is for you altogether. 

Cains. Ah, be-gar; and de maid is love-a me: my nursh-a 
Quickly tell me so mush. 

Jfost, What say you to young Master Fen ton ? he capers, 
he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks 
holiday, he smells April and May. He will carry ''t, he will 
carry 't; 't is in his buttons; he will carry 't. 60 

Page. Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman 

F 



82 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

is of no having : he kept company with the wild prince and 
Poins; he is of too high a region ; he knows too much. No, 
he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of 
my substance: if he take her, let him take her simply; the 
wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes not 
that way. 

Ford. I beseech you heartily, some of you go home with 
me to dinner : besides your cheer, you shall have sport j I 
will show you a monster. — Master doctor, you shall go; — so 
shall you. Master Page ; — and you, Sir Hugh. 71 

Shallozu. Well, fare you well. — We shall have the freer 
w^ooing at Master Page's. \Exeiint Shallow and Slender, 

Caius. Go home, John Rugby ; I come anon. 

\Exit Rugby, 

Host. Farewell, my hearts. I will to my honest knight 
Falstaff, and drink canary with him. \_Exit. 

Ford. \Aside\ I think I shall drink in pipe-wine first with 
him; I '11 make him dance. — Will you go, gentles? 

All. Have with you to see this monster. \Exeunt. 

Scene in. A Room in Ford^s House. 

Enter Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. 

Mrs. Ford. What, John 1— What, Robert ! 

Mrs. Page. Quickh^, quickly ! Is the buck-basket — - 

M7's. Ford. I warrant. — What, Robin, I say 1 

Enter Servants with a basket. 

Mrs. Page. Come, come, come. 

Mrs. Ford. Here, set it down. 

Mrs. Page. Give your men the charge; we must be brief. 

Mrs. Ford. Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, 
be ready here hard by in the brew-house; and when I sud- 
denly call you, come for!h, and without any pause or stagger- 
ing take this basket on your shoulders : that done, trudge 



ACT HI, SCENE III. Z^, 

with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters in 
Datchet-mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch close 
by the Thames side. 13 

Mrs. Page. You will do it? 

Mrs. Ford. I ha' told them over and over; they lack no 
direction. — Be gone, and come when you are called. 

\Exeunt Servants. 

Mrs. Page. Here comes little Robin, 

Enter Robin. 

Mrs. Ford. How now, my eyas-musket ! what news with 
you? 

Rohiii. My master. Sir John, is come in at your back-door, 
Mistress Ford, and requests your company. 21 

Mrs. Page. You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been true to us? 

Robin. Ay, I '11 be sworn. My master knows not of your 
being here and hath threatened to put me into everlasting 
liberty if I tell you of it; for he swears he '11 turn me away. 

Mrs. Page. Thou 'rt a good boy; this secrecy of thine shall 
be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee a new doublet and 
hose. — I 'II go hide me. 

Mrs. Ford. Do so. — Go tell thy master I am alone. — 
\Exit Robin?^ Mistress Page, remember you your cue. 30 

Mi's. Page. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hiss me. 

\Exit. 

Mrs. Ford. Go to, then : we '11 use this unwholesome hu- 
midity, this gross watery pumpion ; we '11 teach him to know 
turtles from jays. 

Enter Falstaff. 

Falstaff. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel ? Why, 
now let me die, for I have lived long enough ; this is the 
period of my ambition. O this blessed hour! 

Mrs. Ford. O sweet Sir John ! 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate. Mis- 
tress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish : I would thy hus- 



84 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

band were dead, — I '11 speak it before the best lord, — I 
would make thee my lady. 42 

Mrs. Ford, I your lady, Sir John ! alas, I should be a piti- 
ful lady ! 

Fahtaff. Let the court of France show me such another. 
I see how thine eye would emulate the diamond ; thou hast 
the right arched beauty of the brow that becomes the ship- 
tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance. 

Mrs. Ford. A plain kerchief. Sir John j my brows become 
nothing else, — nor that well neither. 50 

Falstaff, By the Lord, thou art a traitor to say so : thou 
wouldst make an absolute courtier ; and the firm fixture of 
thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait in a semi- 
circled farthingale. I see what thou wert, if Fortune thy foe 
were not, Nature thy friend. Come, thou canst not hide it. 

Mrs. Ford. Believe me, there 's no such thing in me. 

Falstaff. What made me love thee? let that persuade thee 
there 's something extraordinary in thee. Come, I cannot 
cog and say thou art this and that, like a many of these lisp- 
ing hawthorn-buds, that come like women in men's apparel, 
and smell like Bucklersbury in simple time; I cannot: but 
I love thee, none but thee, and thou deservest it. 62 

Mrs. Ford. Do not betray me, sir. I fear you love Mis- 
tress Page. 

Falstaff. Thou mightst as well say I love to walk by the 
Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the reek of a lime- 
kiln. 

Mrs. Ford. Well, heaven knows how I love you, and you 
shall one day find it. 

Falstaff. Keep in that mind ; I '11 deserve it. 70 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could 
not be in that mind. 

Robin. [JVitlim] Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford ! here 's 
Mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing and look- 
ing wildly, and would needs speak with you presently. 



ACT III. SCENE III, 8^ 

Falstaff. She shall not see me ; I will ensconce me behind 
the arras. 

Mrs, Ford, Pray yon, do so ; she 's a very tattling wom- 
an. — \Falstaff hides himself , 

Re-enter Mistress Page and Robin. 
What 's the matter ? how now ! 80 

Mrs, Page. O Mistress Ford, what have you done ? You 're 
shamed, you 're overthrown, you 're undone for ever ! 

Mrs, Ford, What 's the matter, good Mistress Page? 

Mrs, Page. O well-a-day. Mistress Ford ! having an hon- 
est man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspi- 
cion ! 

Mrs. Ford. What cause of suspicion ? 

Mrs. Page. What cause of suspicion ! — Out upon you ! how 
am I mistook in you ! 

Mrs. Ford, Why, alas, what 's the matter 1 90 

Mrs. Page, Your husband 's coming hither, woman, with 
all the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman that he 
says is here now in the house by your consent, to take an 
ill advantage of his absence. You are undone. 

Mrs, Ford, 'T is not so, I hope. 

Mrs, Page, Pray heaven it be not so, that you have such 
a man here ! but 't is most certain your husband 's coming, 
with half Windsor at his heels, to search for such a one. I 
come before to tell you. If you know yourself clear, why, I 
am glad of it ; but if you have a friend here, convey, convey 
him out. Be not amazed; call all your senses to you; de- 
fend your reputation, or bid farewell to your good life for 
ever. 103 

Mrs. Ford, What shall I do ? There is a gentleman my 
dear friend ; and I fear not mine own shame so much as his 
peril. I had rather than a thousand pound he were out of 
the house. 

Mrs. Page, For shame ! never stand 'you had rather' and 



86 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

*you had rather;' your husband 's here at hand; bethink you 
of some conveyance : in the house you cannot hide him. O, 
how have you deceived me ! Look, here is a basket : if he 
be of any reasonable stature, he may creep in here; and 
throw foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking : or 
— it is whiting-time — send him by your two men to Datchet- 
mead. 

Mrs. Ford. He 's too big to go in there. What shall I 
do? 

Falstaff. \_Comi?ig forward^ Let me see 't, let me see 't, O, 
let me see 't ! I '11 in, I '11 in. Follow your friend's coun- 
sel. I '11 in. I20 

Mrs. Page. What, Sir John Falstaff! Are these your let- 
ters, knight ? 

Falstaff: I love thee. Help me away. Let me creep in 
here. I '11 never — 

[^Gets into the basket; they cover him with foul li?ten. 

Mrs. Page. Help to cover your master, boy. — Call your 
men, Mistress Ford. — You dissembling knight ! 

Mrs. Ford. What, John 1 Robert ! John ! \^Fxit Robin. 

Re-enter Servants. 

Go take up these clothes here quickl}^ — Where 's the cowl- 
staff? look, how you drumble ! — Carry them to the laundress 
in Datchet-mead; quickly, come. 130 

Enter Ford, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans. 

Ford. Pray you, come near : if I suspect without cause, 
why then make sport at me; then let me be your jest; I de- 
serve it. — How now! whither bear you this? 

Servants. To the laundress, forsooth. 

Mrs. Fo7'd. Why, what have you to do whither they bear 
it? You were best meddle with buck-washing. 

Ford. Buck! I would I could wash myself of the buck! 
Buck, buck, buck! Ay, buck; I warrant you, buck, and of 



ACT III. SCENE III. 



87 



the season too, it shall appear. — [^Exeunt Servants with the 
basket.'] Gentlemen, I have dreamed to-night; I '11 tell you 
my dream. Here, hei*e, here be my keys: ascend my cham- 
bers; search, seek, find out: I '11 warrant we '11 unkennel the 
fox. — Let me stop this way first. — \_Lockmg the door.'] So, 
now uncape. 144 

Fage, Good Master Ford, be contented; you wrong your- 
self too much. 

Ford. True, Master Page. — Up, gentlemen ; you shall see 
sport anon : follow me, gentlemen. [^Exit. 

Evans, This is fery fantastical humours and jealousies. 

Caius. By gar, 't is no the fashion of France ; it is not 
jealous in France. 151 

Page. Nay, follow him, gentlemen ; see the issue of his 
search. \Exeunt Page, Caius, and Evans. 

Mrs. Page. Is there not a double excellency in this ? 

Mrs. Ford: I know not which pleases me better, that my 
husband is deceived, or Sir John. 

Mrs. Page. What a taking was he in when your husband 
asked what was in the basket ! 

Mrs. Ford. I am half afraid he will have need of washing ; 
so throwing him into the water will do him a benefit. 160 

Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest rascal ! I would all of 
the same strain were in the same distress. 

Mrs. Ford. I think my husband hath some special suspi- 
cion of Falstaff's being here; for I never saw him so gross 
in his jealousy till now. 

Mrs. Page. I will lay a plot to try that; and we will yet 
have more tricks with Falstaff: his dissolute disease will 
scarce obey this medicine. 

Mrs. Ford. Shall we send that foolish carrion, Mistress 
Quickly, to him, and excuse his throwing into the water; and 
give him another hope, to betray him to another punishment .'^ 

Mrs. Page. We will do it; let him be sent for to-morrow, 
eight o'clock, to have amends. 173 



88 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Re-e7iter Ford, Page, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans. 

Ford, I cannot find him ; may be the knave bragged of that 
he could not compass. 

Mrs, Page, [Aside to Mrs, Ford] Heard you that? 

Mrs, Ford, You use me well, Master Ford, do you ? 

Ford, Ay, I do so. 

Mrs. Ford. Heaven make you better than your thoughts ! 

Ford, Amen ! • iSo 

Mrs. Page. You do yourself mighty wrong. Master Ford. 

Ford, Ay, ay ; I must bear it. 

Evans, If there be any pody in the house, and in the 
chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses, heaven for- 
give my sins at the day of judgment! 

Caius, By gar, nor I too ; there is no bodies. 

Page, Fie, fie. Master Ford ! are you not ashamed ? What 
spirit, what devil suggests this imagination ? I would not ha' 
your distemper in this kind for the wealth of Windsor Castle. 

Ford. 'T is my fault. Master Page ; I suffer for it. 190 

Evans, You suffer for a pad conscience : your wife is as 
honest a omans as I will desires among five thousand, and 
five hundred too. 

Caius. By gar, I see 't is an honest woman. 

Ford, Well, I promised you a dinner. — Come, come, walk 
in the Park. I pray you, pardon me; I will hereafter make 
known to you why I have done this.-^Come, wife; — come, 
Mistress Page. — I pray you, pardon me; pray heartily, par- 
don me. 199 

Page. Let 's go in, gentlemen ; but, trust me, we '11 mock 
him. I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to 
breakfast: after, we '11 a-birding together; I have a fine hawk 
for the bush. Shall it be so ? 

Ford. Any thing. 

Evans, If there is one, I shall make two in the company. 

Caius, If dere be one or two, I shall make-a de tird. 



ACT III. SCENE IV, 89 

Ford. Pray you, go, Master Page. 

Evans. I pray you now, remembrance to-morrow on the 
lousy knave, mine host. 

Caius. Dat is good ; by gar, with all my heart ! 210 

Evans. A lousy knave, to have his gibes and his mock- 
eries ! \Exeunt. 

Scene IV. A Room in Pagers House. 
Enter Fenton and Anne Page. 

Fenton. I see I cannot get thy father's love; 
Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan. 

Anne- Alas, how then ? 

Fenton. Why, thou must be thyself. 

He doth object I am too great of birth. 
And that, my state being galPd with my expense, 
I seek to heal it only by his wealth. 
Besides these, other bars he lays before me, — 
My riots past, my wild societies, — 
And tells me 't is a thing impossible 
I should love thee but as a property. 10 

Afine. May be he tells you true. 

Fenton. No, heaven so speed me in my time to come ! 
Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth 
Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne, 
Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value 
Than stamps in gold or sums in sealed bags; 
And 't is the very riches of thyself 
That now I aim at. 

Anne. Gentle Master Fenton, 

Yet seek my father's love ; still seek it, sir. 
If opportunity and humblest suit 20 

Cannot attain it, why, then, — hark you hither! 

\They converse apart. 



go MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



E?iter Shallow, Slender, and Mistress Quickly. 

Shallow. Break their talk, Mistress Quickly; my kinsman 
shall speak for himself. 

Slejider. I 'II make a shaft or a bolt on 't. 'Slid, 't is but 
venturing. 

Shallow. Be not dismayed. 

Slender. No, she shall not dismay me ; I care not for that, 
— but that I am afeard. 

Quickly. Hark ye; Master Slender would speak a word 
with you. 30 

An7te. I come to him. — [Aside] This is my father's 
choice. 
O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults 
Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a-year ! 

Quickly. And how does good Master Fenton ? Pray you, 
a word with you. 

Shallow. She 's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst 
a father ! 

Slender. I had a father, Mistress Anne ; my uncle can tell 
you good jests of him. — Pray you, uncle, tell Mistress Anne 
the jest, how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good 
uncle. 41 

Shallow. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you. 

Slender. Ay, that I do ; as well as I love any woman in 
Gloucestershire. 

Shallow. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. 

Slender. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail, under the 
degree of a squire. 

Shallow. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds 
jointure. 

Anne. Good Master Shallow, let him woo for himself 50 

Shallow. Marry, I thank you for it ; I thank you for that 
good comfort. — She calls you, coz; I '11 leave you. 

Anne. Now, Master Slender, — 



ACT III. SCENE IV. C)i 

Slender. Now, good Mistress Anne, — 

Anne. What is your will ? 

Slender. My will ! 'od's heartlings, that 's a pretty jest in- 
deed ! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not 
such a sickly creature, I give heaven praise. 

A7ine. I mean. Master Slender, what would you with me ? 

Slender. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or noth- 
ing with you. Your father and my uncle hath made mo- 
tions: if it be my luck, so; if not, happy man be his dole! 
They can tell you how things go better than I can: you may 
ask your father; here he comes. 64 

Enter Page and Mistress Page. 

Page. Now, Master Slender !■ — Love him, daughter Anne. — 
Why, how now ! what does Master Fenton here ? 
You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house ; 
I told you, sir, my daughter is disposed of 

Fenton. Nay, Master Page, be not impatient. 

Mrs. Page. Good Master Fenton, come not to my child. 

Page. She is no match for you. 71 

Fenton. Sir, will you hear me .^ 

Page. No, good Master Fenton. — 

Come, Master Shallow; — come, son Slender, in. — 
Knowing my mind, you wrong me. Master Fenton. 

\_Exeunt Page., Shallow^ and Slender. 

Quickly. Speak to Mistress Page. 

Fenton. Good Mistress Page, for that I love your daugh- 
ter 
In such a righteous fashion as I do, 
Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners, 
I must advance the colours of my love, 
And not retire ; let me have your good will. 80 

Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to yond fool. 

Mrs. Page. I mean it not; I seek you a better husband. 

Quickly. That 's my master, master doctor. 



92 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Anne. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' the earth 
And bowl'd to death with turnips ! 

Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourself. — Good Master 
Fenton, 
I will not be your friend nor enemy; 
My daughter will I question how she loves you. 
And as I find her, so am I affected. 

Till then farewell, sir: she must needs go in; 90 

Her father will be angry. 

Fenton. Farewell, gentle mistress. — Farewell, Nan. 

\Exeunt Mrs. Page and Amie. 

Quickly. This is my doing, now. — Nay, said I, will you 
cast away your child on a fool and a physician? Look on 
Master Fenton. — This is my doing. 

Fenton. I thank thee ; and I pray thee, once to-night 
Give my sweet Nan this ring. There 's for thy pains. 

Quickly. Now heaven send thee good fortune ! — [^Exit Fen- 
ton.'] A kind heart he hath ; a woman would rvm through 
fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet I would my 
master had Mistress Anne ; or I would Master Slender had 
her; or, in sooth, I would Master Fenton had her. I will 
do what I can for them all three ; for so I have promised, 
and I 'II be as good as my word ; — but speciously for Mas- 
ter Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to Sir John 
Falstaff from my two mistresses; what a beast am I to 
slack it ! [Exit. 

Scene V. A Room in the Garter Inn. 
Enter Falstaff and Bardolph. 

Falstaff. Bardolph, I say, — 

Bardolph. Here, sir. 

Falstaff. Go fetch me a quart of sack ; put a toast in 't. — 
\Exit Bardolph\\ Have I lived to be carried in a basket, 
like a barrow of butcher's ofifal, and to be thrown in the 
Thames ? Well, if I be served such another trick, I Ul have 



ACT III, SCENE V. 93 

my brains ta'en out and buttered, and give them to a dog 
for a new-year's gift. The rogues slighted me into the river 
with as little remorse as they would have drowned a blind 
bitch's puppies, fifteen i' the litter : and you may know by 
my size that I have a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the 
bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. I had been 
drowned, but that the shore was shelvy and shallow, — a death 
that I abhor; for the water swells a man, and what a thing 
should I have been when I had been swelled ! I should 
have been a mountain of mummy. 16 

Re-enter Bardolph with sack, 

Bardolph. Here 's Mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you. 

Falstaff. Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames 
water ; for my belly 's as cold as if I had swallowed snow- 
balls for pills to cool the reins. — Call her in. 20 

Bardolph, Come in, woman ! 

Enter Mistress Quickly. 

Qicickly. By your leave; I cry you mercy: give your wor- 
ship good morrow. 

Falstaff. Take away these chalices. Go brew me a pottle 
of sack finely. 

Bardolph. With eggs, sir ? 

Falstaff. Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-sperm in my brew- 
age. — \Exit Bardolph^ How now ! 

Quickly. Marry, sir, I com^ to your worship from Mistress 
Ford. 30 

Falstaff. Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough; I was 
thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford. 

Quickly. Alas the day ! good heart, that was not her fault: 
she does so take on with her men; they mistook their erec- 
tion. 

Falstaff. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's 
promise. 



94 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Quickly. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn 
your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning 
a-birding; she desires you once more to come to her between 
eight and nine. I must carry her word quickly; she '11 make 
you amends, I warrant you. 42 

Falstaff. Well, I will visit her: tell her so; and bid her 
think what a man is : let her consider his frailty, and then 
judge of my merit. 

Quickly. I will tell her. 

Falstaff. Do so. Between nine and ten, sayest thou ? 

Quickly. Eight and nine, sir. 

Falstaff. Well, be gone ; I will not miss her. 

Quickly. Peace be with you, sir. [Exit. 

Falstaff^. I marvel I hear not of Master Brook; he sent 
me word to stay within. I like his money well. O, here he 
comes. 53 

Enter Ford. 

Ford. Bless you, sir ! 

Falstaff^. Now, Master Brook, you come to know what hath 
passed between me and Ford's wife ? 

Ford. That, indeed, Sir John, is my business. 

Falstaff^. Master Brook, I will not lie to you ; I was at her 
house the hour she appointed me. 

Ford. And sped you, sir? 60 

Falstaff^. Very ill-favouredly, Master Brook. 

Ford. How so, sir? Did she change her determination? 

Falstaff^. No, Master Brook, but the peaking Cornuto her 
husband. Master Brook, dwelling in a continual larum of 
jealousy, comes me in the instant of our encounter, after we 
had embraced, kissed, protested, and, as it were, spoke the 
prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his 
companions, thither provoked and instigated by his distem- 
per, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife's love. 

Ford. What, while you were there? 70 

Falstaff. While I was there. 



ACT IIL SCENE V. 



95 



Ford, And did he search for you, and could not find you ? 

Falstaff. You shall hear. As good luck would have it, 
comes in one Mistress Page, gives intelligence of Ford's ap- 
proach; and, in her invention and Ford's wife's distraction, 
they conveyed me into a buck-basket. 

Ford. A buck-basket? 

Falstaff, By the Lord, a buck-basket ! rammed me in with 
foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy napkins; 
that, Master Brook, there was the rankest compound of vil- 
lanous smell that ever offended nostril. 8i 

Ford. And how long lay you there ? 

Falstaff. Nay, you shall hear. Master Brook, what I have 
suffered to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being 
thus crammed in the basket, a couple of Ford's knaves, his 
hinds, were called forth by their mistress to carry me in the 
name of foul clothes to Datchet-lane. They took me on 
their shoulders, met the jealous knave their master in the 
door, who asked them once or twice what they had in their 
basket. I quaked for fear, lest the lunatic knave would have 
searched it; but fate, ordaining he should be a cuckold, held 
his hand. Well; on went he for a search, and away went I 
for foul clothes. But mark'the sequel. Master Brook : I suf- 
fered the pangs of three several deaths; first, an intolerable 
fright, to be detected with a jealous rotten bell-wether; next, 
to be compassed, like a good bilbo, in the circumference of 
a peck, hilt to point, heel to head; and then, to be stopped 
in, like a strong distillation, with stinking clothes that fretted 
in their own grease. Think of that, — a man of my kidney, — 
think of that, — that am as subject to heat as butter; a man 
of continual dissolution and thaw: it was a miracle to scape 
suffocation. And in the height of this bath, when I was more 
than half stewed in grease, like a Dutch dish, to be thrown 
into the Thames, and cooled, glowing hot, in that surge, like 
a horse-shoe; think of that, — hissing hot, — think of that, Mas- 
ter Brook. jo6 



96 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Ford. In good sadness, sir, I am sorry that for my sake 
you have suffered all this. My suit then is desperate; you '11 
undertake her no more ? 

Falstaff. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, as I 
have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus. Her hus- 
band is this morning gone a-birding: I have received from 
her another embassy of meeting; 'twixt eiglit and nine is the 
hour. Master Brook. 

Ford. 'T is past eight already, sir. 115 

Falstaff. Is it? I will then address me to my appoint- 
ment. Come to me at ^^qmx convenient leisure, and you shall 
know how I speed; and the conclusion shall be crowned 
with your enjoying her. Adieu. You shall have her, Mas- 
ter Brook; Master Brook, you shall cuckold Ford. \Exit. 

Ford. Hum ! ha ! is this a vision ? is this a dream ? do I 
sleep ? Master Ford, awake ! awake ! Master Ford ! there 's 
a hole made in your best coat, Master Ford. This \ is to 
be married ! this 't is to have linen and buck-baskets ? Well, 
I will proclaim myself what I am : I will now take the lech- 
er; he is at my house ; he cannot scape me, 't is impossible 
he should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse, nor into 
a pepper-box : but, lest the devil that guides him should aid 
him, I will search impossible places. Though what I am I 
cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not shall not make me 
tame ; if I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb go 
with me, — I '11 be horn-mad. \Fxit, 





Out of my door, you witch! (iv. 2. i6i). 



ACT IV. 

Scene I. A Street 
Enter Mistress Page, Mistress Quickly, ^;^^ William. 
Mrs. Page. Is he at Master Ford's already, think'st thou.? 
Quickly. Sure he is by this, or will be presently ; but, truly, 
he is very courageous mad about his throwing into the wa- 
ter. Mistress Ford desires you to come suddenly., 

G 



98 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 



Mrs. Page. I '11 be with her by and by ; I '11 but bring my 
young man here to school. Look, where his master comes; 
't is a playing-day, I see. — ■ 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans. 

How now. Sir Hugh ! no school to-day ? 

Evans, No ; Master Slender is let the boys leave to 
play. lo 

Quickly. Blessing of his heart ! 

Mrs. Page. Sir Hugh, my husband says my son profits 
nothing in the world at his book. I pray you, ask him some 
questions in his accidence. 

Eva7is, Come hither, William; hold up your head; come. 

Mrs. Page, Come on, sirrah ; hold up your head ; answer 
your master, be not afraid. 

Evans. William, how many numbers is in nouns ? 

William. Two. 

Quickly. Truly, I thought there had been one number 
more, because they say, 'od 's nouns. 21 

Evans. Peace your tattlings ! — What is ' fair,' William ? 
William. Pulcher. 

Quickly. Polecats! there are fairer things than polecats, 
sure. 

Evans. You are a very simplicity oman ; I pray you, 
peace. — What is Mapis,' William? 

William. A stone. 

Evans. And what is 'a stone,' William? 

William. A pebble. 30 

Evans. No, it is Mapis;' I pray you, remember in your 
prain. 

Willi a7n. Lapis. 

Evans. That is a good William. What is he, William, 
that does lend articles ? 

William. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be 
thus declined, Singulariter, nominativo, hie, haec, hoc. 



ACT IV. SCENE I. 99 

Evans. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog; pray you, mark: geni- 
tive, hujus. Well, what is your accusative case ? 

William. Accusative, hinc. 4© 

Evans. I pray you, have your remembrance, child ; accu- 
sative, hung, hang, hog. 

Quickly. Hang-hog is Latin for bacon, I warrant you. 

Evans. Leave your prabbles, oman. — What is the focative 
case, William ? 

William. O ! — vocative, O ! — 

Evans. Remember, William ; focative is caret. 

Quickly. And that 's a good root. 

Eva?is. Oman, forbear. 

Mrs. Page. Peace 1 50 

Evans. What is your genitive case plural, William ? 

Williafn. Genitive case ! 

Evafis. Ay. 

William. Genitive, — horum, harum, herum. 

Quickly. Vengeance of Jenny^s case ! fie en her ! never 
name her, child, if she be a whore. 

Evans. For shame, oman. 

Quickly. You do ill to teach the child such words: — He 
teaches him to hick and to hack, which they '11 do fast 
enough of themselves, and to call horum. — Fie upon you ! 60 

Evans. Oman, art thou lunatics ? hast thou no under- 
standings for thy cases and the numbers of the genders ? 
Thou art as foolish Christian creatures as I would desires. 

Mrs. Page. Prithee, held thy peace. 

Evans. Show me now, William, some declensions of your 
pronouns. 

William. Forsooth, I have forgot. 

Evans. It is qui, quae, quod ; if you forget your quies, your 
quaes, and your quods, you must be preeches. Go your ways, 
and play j go. ^o 

Mrs. Page. He is a better scholar than I thought he 
was. 



lOO MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Evans. He is a good sprag memory. Farewell, Mistress 
Page. 

Mrs. Page. Adieu, good Sir Hugh. — \Exit Sir Hugh.'] Get 
you home, boy. — Come, we stay too long. [Exeunt 



Scene II. A Room in Eord^s House. 
Enter Falstaff and Mistress Ford. 

Falstaff, Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up my 
sufferance. I see you are obsequious in your love, and I 
profess requital to a hair's breadth; not only. Mistress Ford, 
in the simple office of love, but in all the accoutrement, com- 
plement, and ceremony of it. But are you sure of your hus- 
band now? 

Mrs. Ford. He 's a-birding, sweet Sir John. 

Mrs. Page. [ Withi^i] What, ho, gossip Ford ! what, ho ! 

Mrs. Ford. Step into the chamber, Sir John. [Exit Falstaff. 

Enter Mistress Page. 

Mrs. Page. How now, sweetheart ! who 's at home besides 
yourself? u 

Mrs. Ford. Why, none but mine own people. 

M7^s. Page. Indeed ! 

Mrs. Ford. No, certainly. — [Aside to her^ Speak louder. 

Mrs. Page. Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here. 

Mrs. Ford. Why ? 

Mrs. Page. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes 
again ; he so takes on yonder with my husband, so rails 
against all married mankind, so curses all Eve's daughters, 
of what complexion soever, and so buffets himself on the 
forehead, crying, ' Peer out, peer out V that any madness I 
ever yet beheld seemed but tameness, civility, and patience, 
to this his distemper he is in now. I am glad the fat knight 
is not here. 24 

Mrs. Ford. Whv, does he talk of him ? 



ACT IV. SCENE II, lOi 

Mrs, Page. Of none but him, and swears he was carried 
out, the last time he searched for him, in a basket; protests 
to my husband he is now here, and hath drawn him and the 
rest of their company from their sport, to make another ex- 
periment of his suspicion. But I am glad the knight is not 
here; now he shall see his own foolery. 31 

Mrs, Ford. How near is he. Mistress Page ? 

Mrs. Page. Hard by, at street end ; he will be here anon. 

Mrs. Ford. I am undone ! The knight is here. 

Mrs. Page. Why then you are utterly sharried, and he *s 
but a dead man. What a woman are you ! — Away with him, 
away wnth him ! better shame than murther. 

Mrs. Ford, Which way should he go ? how should I be- 
stow him 1 Shall I put him into the basket again .? 

Re-enter^ KL%TKYY. 

Falstaff. No, I '11 come no more i' the basket. May I not 
go out ere he come ? 41 

Mrs, Page. Alas, three of Master Ford's brothers watch 
the door with pistols, that none shall issue out; otherwise 
you might slip away ere he came. But what make you here ? 

Falstaff, ^^h?it shall I do? — I '11 creep up into the chim- 
ney. 

Mrs, Ford, There they always use to discharge their 
birding-pieces. Creep into the kiln-hole. 

Falstaff, Where is it ? 

Mrs. Ford. He will seek there, on my word. Neither 
press, coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an ab- 
stract for the remembrance of such places, and goes to them 
by his note ; there is no hiding you in the house. 53 

Falstaff. I '11 go out then. 

Mrs. Page. If you go out in your own semblance, you die, 
Sir John, Unless you go out disguised — 

Mrs. Ford. How might we disguise him .? 

Mrs. Page. Alas the day, I know not ! There is no wom- 



I02 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

an's gown big enough for him ; otherwise he might put on a 
hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape. 60 

Falstaff. Good hearts, devise something ; any extremity 
rather than a mischief 

Mrs. Ford. My maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brentford, 
has a gown above. 

Mrs. Page. On my word, it will serve him; she 's as big 
as he is : and there 's her thrummed hat and her muffler 
too. — Run up. Sir John. 

Mrs. Ford. Go, go, sweet Sir John ; Mistress Page and I 
will look some linen for your head. 69 

Mrs. Page. Quick, quick! we '11 come dress you straight; 
put on the gown the while. \Exit Falstaff, 

Mrs. Ford. I would my husband would meet him in this 
shape: he cannot, abide the old w^oman of Brentford; he 
swears she 's a witch, forbade her my house, and hath threat- 
ened to beat her. 

Mrs. Page. Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel, 
and the devil guide his cudgel afterwards ! 

Mrs. Ford. But is my husband coming ? 

Mrs. Page. Ay, in good sadness, is he; and talks of the 
basket too, howsoever he hath had intelligence. 80 

Mrs. Ford. We '11 try that; for I '11 appoint my men to 
carry the basket again, to meet him at the door with it, as 
they did last time. 

Mrs. Page. Nay, but he '11 be here presently: let 's go 
dress him like the witch of Brentford. 

Mrs. Ford. I '11 first direct my men wiiat they shall do with 
the basket. Go up; I '11 bring linen for him straight. \Exit. 

Mrs. Page. Hang him, dishonest varlet ! we cannot mis- 
use him enough. 

We '11 leave a proof, by that which we will do, 90 

Wives may be merry, and yet honest too. 

We do not act that often jest and laugh; 

'T is old, but true, still swine eat all the draff. \Exit. 



ACT IV. SCENE IT. 



Re-enter Mistress Ford with two Servants. 



103 



Mrs, Ford, Go, sirs, take the basket again on your shoul- 
ders: your master is hard at door; if he bid you set it down, 
obey him. Quickly, dispatch. \Exit, 

1 Servant. Come, come, take it up. 

2 Servant. Pray heaven it be not full of knight again. 

I Servant. I hope not; I had as lief bear so much lead. 

Enter Ford, Page, Shallow, Caius, and Sir Hugh Evans. 

Ford. Ay, but if it prove true. Master Page, have you any 
way then to unfool me again ? — Set down the basket, vil- 
lains ! — Somebody call my wife. — Youth in a basket ! — O 
you panderly rascals ! there 's a knot, a ging, a pack, a con- 
spiracy against me; now shall the devil be shamed. — What, 
wife, I say ! Come, come forth ! Behold what honest clothes 
you send forth to bleaching ! 

Page. Why, this passes ! Master Ford, you are not to go 
loose any longer; you must be pinioned. 

Evans, Why, this is lunatics ! this is mad as a mad dog ! 

Shallow, Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well, indeed. 

Ford, So say I too, sir. — m 

Re-enter Mistress Ford. 

Come hither. Mistress Ford ; Mistress Ford, the honest 
woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath the 
jealous fool to her husband ! — I suspect without cause, mis- 
tress, do I ? 

Mrs, Ford. Heaven be my witness you do, if you suspect 
me in any dishonesty. 

Ford, Well said, brazen-face ! hold it out. — Come forth, 
sirrah ! \Piilling clothes out of the basket. 

Page, This passes ! 120 

Mrs, Ford. Are you not ashamed ? let the clothes alone. 

Ford, I shall find you anon. 



I04 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Evans. 'T is unreasonable ! Will you take up your wife's 
clothes? Come away. 

Ford. Empty the basket, I say ! 

Mrs. Ford. Why, man, why ? 

Ford. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one con- 
veyed out of my house yesterday in this basket ; why may 
not he be there again ? In my house I am sure he is : my 
intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable. — Pluck me 
out all the linen. 131 

Mrs. Ford. If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's 
death. 

Page. Here 's no man. 

Shallow. By my fidelity, this is not well, Master Ford; 
this wrongs you. 

Evans. Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the 
imaginations of your own heart; this is jealousies. 

Ford. Well, he 's not here I seek for. 

Page. No, nor nowhere else but in your brain. 140 

Ford. Help to search my house this one time. If I find 
not what I seek, show no colour for my extremity; let me 
forever be your table-sport; let them say of me, 'As jealous 
as Ford, that searched a hollow walnut for his wife's leman.' 
Satisfy me once more; once more search with me. 

Mrs. Ford. What, ho. Mistress Page ! come you and the 
old woman down; my husband will come into the cham- 
ber. 

Ford. Old woman ! what old woman 's that? 

Mrs. Ford. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brentford. 150 

Ford. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean ! Have I 
not forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? 
We are simple men ; we do not know what 's brought to pass 
under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by charms, 
by spells, by the figure, and such daubery as this is, beyond 
our element ; we know nothing. — Come down, you witch, 
you hag, you; come down, I say ! 



ACT IV, SCENE II, 



lOS 



Mrs. Ford, Nay, good, sweet husband ! — Good gentlemen, 
let him not strike the old woman. 159 

Re-enter Falstaff in woman's clothes, and Mistress Page. 

Mrs. Page. Come, Mother Prat; come, give me your hand. 

Ford. I '11 prat her. — {^Beating hini\ Out of my door, you 
witch, you hag, you baggage, you polecat, you ronyon ! out, 
out ! I '11 conjure you, I '11 fortune-tell you. \Exit Falstaff. 

Mrs. Page. Are you not ashamed .'* I think you have 
killed the poor woman. 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, he will do it. — 'T is a goodly credit for 
you. 

Ford. Hang her, witch ! ^ 

Fvans. By yea and no, I think the oman is a witch in- 
deed : I like not when a oman has a great peard; I spy a 
great peard under her muffler. 171 

Ford. Will you follow, gentlemen ? I beseech you, follow; 
see but the issue of my jealousy. If I cry out thus upon no 
trail, never trust me when I open again. 

Page, Let 's obey his humour a little further. Come, gen- 
tlemen. \_Fxeunt Ford^ Fage, Shallow, Caius, and Evans, 

Mrs. Page. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully. 

Mrs. Ford. Nay, by the mass, that he did not; he beat him 
most unpitifully, methought. 

Mrs. Page. I '11 have the cudgel hallowed and hung o'er 
the altar; it hath done meritorious service. 181 

Mrs. Ford. What think you ? may we, with the warrant of 
womanhood and the witness of a good conscience, pursue 
him with any further revenge ? 

Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonness is, sure, scared out of 
him ; if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and 
recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt 
us again. 

Mrs, Ford, Shall we tell our husbands how we have served 
him t 190 



io6 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Mrs. Page. Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the 
figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in 
their hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any fur- 
ther afflicted, we two will still be the ministers. 

Mrs. Ford. I '11 warrant they '11 have him publicly shamed; 
and methinks there would be no period to the jest, should he 
not be publicly shamed. 

Mrs. Page. Come, to the forge with it then; shape it: I 
would not have things cool. [Exeunt. 

Scene III. A Room in the Garter Inn, 
Enter Host and Bardolph. 

Bardolph. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of your 
horses ; the duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and 
they are going to meet him. 

Host. What duke should that be comes so secretly.? I 
hear not of him in the court. — Let me speak with the gentle- 
men ; they speak English ? 

Bardolph. Ay, sir; I '11 call them to you. 

Host. They shall have my horses, but I '11 make them pay; 
I '11 sauce them. They have had my house a week at com- 
mand ; I have turned away my other guests : they must come 
off; I '11 sauce them. Come. [Exeunt. 

Scene IV. A Room in Ford^s House, 

Enter Page, Ford, Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Sir 

Hugh Evans. 

Evans. 'T is one of the pest discretions of a oman as 
ever I did look upon. 

Page. And did he send you both these letters at an in- 
stant? 

Mrs. Page. Within a quarter of an hour. 

Ford. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth do what thou wilt ; 



ACT IV. SCENE IV. 107 

I rather will suspect the sun with cold 

Than thee with wantonness : now doth thy honour stand, 

In him that was of late an heretic, 

As firm as faith. 

Page. 'T is well, 't is well; no more : 10 

Be not as extreme in submission 
As in offence. 

But let our plot go forward ; let our wives 
Yet once again, to make us public sport, 
Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow, 
Where we may take him and disgrace him for it. 

Ford. There is no better way than that they spoke of. 

Page. How? to send him word they '11 meet him in the 
park at midnight ? Fie, fie ! he '11 never come. 

Evans. You say he has been thrown in the rivers and has 
been grievously peaten as an old oman : methinks there 
should be terrors in him that he should not come; methinks 
his flesh is punished, he shall have no desires. 23 

Page. So think I too. 

Mrs. Ford. Devise but how you '11 use him when he 
comes. 
And let us two devise to bring him thither. 

Mrs. Page. There is an old tale goes that Heme the 
hunter, 
Sometime a keeper here in Windsor forest. 
Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight, 
Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns; 30 

And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle, 
And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain 
In a most hideous and dreadful manner. 
You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know 
The superstitious idle-headed eld 
Receiv'd and did deliver to our aae 
This tale of Heme the hunter for a truth. 

Page. Why, yet there want not many that do fear 



To8 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

In deep of night to walk by this Heme's oak; 
But what of this? 

Mrs, Ford. Marry, this is our device ; 40 

That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us, 
Disguis'd like Heme, with huge horns on his head. 

Page, Well, let it not be doubted but he '11 come; 
And in this shape when you have brought him thither, 
What shall be done with him ? what is your plot ? 

Mrs. Page. That likewise have we thought upon, and 
thus : 
Nan Page my daughter, and my little son. 
And three or four more of their growth, we '11 dress 
Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white, 
With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads, 50 

And rattles in their hands. Upon a sudden, 
As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met. 
Let them from forth a saw-pit rush at once 
With some diffused song; upon their sight, 
We two in great amazedness will fly. 
Then let them all encircle him about, 
And, fairy-like, to-pinch the unclean knight, 
And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel. 
In their so sacred paths he dares to tread 
In shape profane. 

Mrs. Ford. And till he tell the truth, 60 

Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound 
And burn him with their tapers. 

Mrs. Page. The truth being known, 

We '11 all present ourselves, dis-horn the spirit, 
And mock him home to Windsor. 

Ford. The children must 

Be practised well to this, or they '11 ne'er do 't. 

Evans. I will teach the children their behaviours ; and I 
will be like a jack-a-napes also, to burn the knight with my 
taber. 



ACT IV, SCENE V, 1 09 

Ford. That will be excellent. I '11 go and buy them viz- 
ards. 70 

Mrs. Page. My Nan shall be the queen of all the fairies, 
Finely attired in a robe of white. 

Page. That silk will I go buy. — [Aside] And in that time 
Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away 
And marry her at Eton. — Go send to Falstaff straight. 

P'ord. Nay, I '11 to him again in name of Brook. 
He '11 tell me all his purpose ; sure, he '11 come. 

Mrs. Page. Fear not you that. Go get us properties 
And tricking for our fairies. 

Evans. Let us about it ; it is admirable pleasures and fery 
honest knaveries. [Exeunt Page, Ford, and Evans. 

Mrs. Page. Go, Mistress Ford, 82 

Send quickly to Sir John, to know his mind. — 

[Exit Mrs. Ford. 
I '11 to the doctor; he hath my good will. 
And none but he, to marry with Nan Page. 
That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot; 
And he my husband best of all affects. 
The doctor is well money'd, and his friends 
Potent at court; he, none but he, shall have her. 
Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her. [Exit. 

Scene V. A Room in the Garter Inn. 
Filter Host and Simple. 

Host. What wouldst thou have, boor.? what, thick-skin.? 
speak, breathe, discuss ; brief, short, quick, snap. 

Simple. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff 
from Master Slender. 

Host. There 's his chamber, his house, his castle, his stand- 
ing-bed and truckle-bed ; 't is painted about with the story 
of the Prodigal, fresh and new. Go knock and call; he '11 
speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee : knock, I say. 



no MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Shnple, There 's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into 
his chamber. I '11 be so bold as stay, sir, till she come down ; 
I come to speak with her, indeed. n 

Host, Ha ! a fat woman ! the knight may be robbed; I '11 
call. — Bully knight ! bully Sir John ! speak from thy lungs 
military; art thou there? it is thine host, thine Ephesian, calls. 

Falstaff. \Above\ How now, mine host] 

Host. Here 's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down 
of thy fat woman. Let her descend, bully, let her descend; 
my chambers are honourable : fie ! privacy.^ fie ! 

Enter Falstaff. 

• Falstaff. There was, mine host, an old fat woman even now 
with me ; but she 's gone. -20 

Simple, Pray you, sir, was 't not the wise woman of Brent- 
ford ? 

Falstaff. Ay, marry, was it, mussel-shell; what would you 
with her? 

Simple. My master, sir. Master Slender, sent to her, see- 
ing her go thorough the streets, to know, sir, whether one 
Nym, sir, that beguiled him of a chain, had the chain or no. 

Falstaff. I spake with the old woman about it. 

Simple. And what says she, I pray, sir? 

Falstaff. Marry, she says that the very same man that be- 
guiled Master Slender of his chain cozened him of it. 31 

Simple. I would I could have spoken with the woman her- 
self; I had other things to have spoken with her too from 
him. 

Falstaff. What are they ? let us know. 

Host. Ay, come ; quick. 

Simple. I may not conceal them, sir. 

Host. Conceal them, or thou diest. 

Simple. Why, sir, they were nothing but about Mistress 
Anne Page ; to know if it were my master's fortune to have 
her or no. 41 



ACT IV. SCENE V. HI 

Falstaff. T is, 't is his fortune. 

Simple. What, sir ? 

Falstaff, To have her, — or no. Go ; say the woman told 
me so. 

Simple. May I be bold to say so, sir ? 

Falstaff. Ay, sir; like who more bold? 

Simple. I thank your worship. I shall make my master 
glad with these tidings. \Exit. 

Host, Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, Sir John. Was 
there a wise woman with thee ? s^ 

Falstaff. Ay, that there was, mine host; one that hath 
taught me more wit than ever I learned before in my life ; 
and I paid nothing for it, neither, but was paid for my learn- 
ing. 

Efiter Bardolph. 

Bardolph. Out, alas, sir ! cozenage, mere cozenage ! 

Host. Where be my horses ? speak well of them, varletto. 

Bardolph. Run away with the cozeners ; for so soon as I 
came beyond Eton, they threw me off from behind one of 
them, in a slough of mire, and set spurs and away, like three 
German devils, three Doctor Faustuses. 6i 

Host. They are gone but to meet the duke, villain : do 
not say they be fled; Germans are honest men. 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans. 

Evans. Where is mine host ? 

Host. What is the matter, sir? 

Evans. Have a care of your entertainments : there is a 
friend of mine come to town, tells me there is three cozen- 
germans that has cozened all the hosts of Readins, of Maid- 
enhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for 
good will, look you ; you are wise and full of gibes and 
vlouting-stogs, and 't is not convenient you should be coz- 
ened. Fare you well. \Exit, 



112 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Enter Doctor Caius. 

Cuius. Vere is mine host de Jarteer? 

Host. Here, master doctor, in perplexity and doubtful 
dilemma. 75 

Caius. I cannot tell vat is dat j but it is tell-a me dat you 
make grand preparation for a duke de Jamany: by my trot, 
dere is no duke dat the court is know to come. I tell you 
for good vill ; adieu. [^^pcit. 

Host. Hue and cry, villain, go ! — Assist me, knight. I am 
undone ! — Fly, run, hue and cry, villain ! I am undone ! Si 

[Exewit Host a7td Bardolph. 

Falstaff. I would all the world might be cozened; for I 
have been cozened and beaten too. If it should come to 
the ear of the court, how I have been transformed and how 
my transformation hath been washed and cudgelled, they 
would melt me out of my fat drop by drop and liquor fisher- 
men's boots with me. I warrant they would whip me with 
their fine wits till I were as crest-fallen as a dried pear. I 
never prospered since I forswore myself at primero. Well, 
if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers, I would 
repent. — 91 

Enter Mistress Quickly. 

Now, whence come you ? 

Quickly. From the two parties, forsooth. 

Falstaff. The devil take one party and his dam the other ! 
and so they shall be both bestowed. I have suffered more 
for their sakes, more than the villanous inconstancy of man's 
disposition is able to bear. 

Quickly. And have not they suffered? Yes, I warrant; 
speciously one of them ; Mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten 
black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her. 

Falstaff. What tellest thou me of black and blue .^ I was 
beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow; and I was 
like to be apprehended for the witch of Brentford : but that 



ACT IV, SCENE VI. 113 

my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the action 
of an old woman, delivered me, the knave constable had set 
me i' the stocks, i' the common stocks, for a witch. 

Quickly, Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber ; you 
shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your content. 
Here is a letter will say somewhat. Good hearts, what ado 
here is to bring you together ! Sure, one of you does not 
serve heaven well, that you are so crossed. m 

^ Falstaff. Come up into my chamber. [Exeunt 



Scene VI. Another Room in the Garter Inn, 
Enter Fenton and Host. 

Host. Master Fenton, talk not to me; my mind is heavy: 
I will give over all. 

Fenton, Yet hear me speak. Assist me in my purpose, 
And, as I am a gentleman, I 'II give thee 
A hundred pound in gold more than your loss. 

Host, I will hear you. Master Fenton; and I will at the 
least keep your counsel. 

Fenton, Froni time to time I have acquainted you 
With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page, 
Who mutually hath answer'd my affection, to 

So far forth as herself might be her chooser. 
Even to my wish. I have a letter from her 
Of such contents as you will wonder at; 
The mirth whereof so larded with my matter. 
That neither singly can be manifested, 
Without the show of both; — fat Falstaff 
Hath a great scene: the image of the jest 
I '11 show you here at large. Hark, good mine host. 
To-night at Heme's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one, 
Must my sweet Nan present the Fairy Queen; 20 

The purpose why, is here : in which disguise. 
While other jests are something rank on foot, 

H 



114 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR 



Her father hath commanded her to slip 

Away wilh Slender, and with him at Eton 

Immediately to marry; she hath consented. 

Now, sir. 

Her mother, ever strong against that match 

And firm for Doctor Caius, hath appointed 

That he shall likewise shuffle her away, 

While other sports are tasking of their minds, 30 

And at the deanery, where a priest attends, 

Straight marry her; to this her mother's plot 

She seemingly obedient likewise hath 

Made promise to the doctor. — Now, thus it rests : 

Her father means she shall be all in white. 

And in that habit, when Slender sees his time 

To take her by the hand and bid her go, 

She shall go with him; her mother hath intended, 

The better to denote her to the doctor,— 

For they must all be mask'd and vizarded, — 40 

That quaint in green she shall be loose enrob'd, 

With ribands pendent, flaring 'bout her head; 

And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe, 

To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token, 

The maid hath given consent to go with him. 

Host Which means she to deceive, father or mother ? 

Fentoji. Both, my good host, to go along with me; 
And here it rests, — that you '11 procure the vicar 
To stay for me at church 'twixt twelve and one, 
And, in the lawful name of marrying, 50 

To give our hearts united ceremony. 

Host. Well, husband your device; I '11 to the vicar. 
Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest. 

Fenton, So shall I evermore be bound to thee ; 
Besides, I '11 make a present recompense. \Exeunt, 







WINDSOR FOREST. 



ACT V. 

Scene I. A Room i7i the Garter Inn, 
Enter Falstaff and Mistress Quickly. 

Falstaff. Prithee, no more prattling; go. I '11 hold. — This 
IS the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers. — 
Away! go. — They say there is divinity in odd numbers, 
either in nativity, chance, or death. — Away ! 

Quickly. I '11 provide you a chain, and I '11 do what I can 
to get you a pair of horns. 

Falstaff. Away, I say; time wears: hold up your head, 
and mince. — \jExit Mrs. Quickly. 



Ii6 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR. 

Enter Ford. 

How now. Master Brook ! Master Brook, the matter will be 
known to-night, or never. Be you in the Park about mid- 
night, at Heme's oak, and you shall see wonders. n 

Ford. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me 
you had appointed t 

Falstaff, I went to her. Master Brook, as you see, like a 
poor old man ; but I came from her. Master Brook, like a 
poor old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband, 
hath the finest mad devil of jealousy in him. Master Brook, 
that ever governed frenzy. I will tell you : he beat me 
grievously in the shape of a woman ; for in the shape of man. 
Master Brook, I fear not Goliah with a weaver's beam ; be- 
cause I know also life is a shuttle. I am in haste ; go along 
with me : I '11 tell you all. Master Brook. Since I plucked 
geese, played truant, and whipped top, I knew not what 't was 
to be beaten till lately. Follow me ; I '11 tell you strange 
things of this knave Ford, on whom to-night I will be re- 
venged, and I will deliver his wife into your hand. — Follow. 
Strange things in hand, Master Brook ! Follow. \_Exeunt 

Scene II. Windsor Park. 
Enter Page, Shallow, and Slender. 

Page, Come, come ; we '11 couch i' the castle-ditch till we 
see the light of our fairies. — Remember, son Slender, my 
daughter. 

Slender, Ay, forsooth ; I have spoke with her and we have 
a nay -word how to know one another. I come to her in 
white, and cry *mum;' she cries 'budget,' and by that we 
know one another. 

Shallow. That 's good too ; but what needs either your 
'mum' or her 'budget?' the white will decipher her well 
enough. — It hath struck ten o'clock. lo 



ACT V, SCENE III, 117 

Page. The night is dark ; light and spirits will become it 
well. Heaven prosper our sport ! No man means evil but 
the devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let 's away; 
follow me. \Exeunt, 



Scene III. A Street leading to the Park, 
E7iter Mistress Page, Mistress Ford, and Doctor Caius. 

Mrs, Page. Master doctor, my daughter is in green ; when 
you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to 
the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before into the 
Park; we two must go together. 

Caius, I know vat I have to do. ' Adieu. 

Mrs. Page. Fare you well, sir. — \Exit Caius.'] My hus- 
band will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he 
will chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter: but 't is no 
matter; better a little chiding than a great deal of heart- 
break. 10 

Mrs. Ford. .Where is Nan now and her troop of fairies, 
and the Welsh devil Hugh? 

Mrs. Page. They are all couched in a pit hard by Heme's 
oak, with obscured lights; which, at the very infant of Fal- 
staff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the 
night. 

Mrs, Ford. That cannot choose but amaze him. 

Mrs. Page. If he be not amazed, he will be mocked; if he 
be amazed, he will every way be mocked. 

Mrs. Ford. We '11 betray him finely. 2a 

Mrs. Page. Against such lewdsters and their lechery 
Those that betray them do no treachery. 

Mrs, Ford, The hour draws on. To the oak, to the oak ! 

[Exeunt 



Ii8 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



Scene IV. Windsor Park. 

Enter Sir Hugh Evans disguised^ with others as Fairies, 

Evans, Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your 
parts. Be pold, I pray you ; follow me into the pit ; and 
when I give the watch -ords, do as I pid you. Come, 
come; trib, trib. \Exeunt. 

Scene V. Another Part of the Park, 

Enter Falstaff disguised as Heme, 

Falstaff, The Windsor bell hath struck twelve ; the minute 
draws on. Now, the hot-blooded gods assist me I Remem- 
ber, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa ; love set on thy 
horns. O powerful love ! that, in some respects, makes a 
beast a man, in some other a man a beast. You were also, 
Jupiter, a swan for the love of Leda. O omnipotent love ! 
how neac the god drew to the complexion of a goose ! A 
fault done first in the form of a beast. O Jove, a beastly 
fault ! And then another fault in the semblance of a fowl ; 
think on 't, Jove ; a foul fault ! — When gods have hot backs, 
what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor stag; 
and the fattest, I think, i' the forest. Send me a cool rut- 
time, Jove! — Who comes here? my doe? • 13 

Enter Mistress Ford and Mistress Page. 

Mrs, Ford. Sir John! art thou there, my deer? my male 
deer? 

Falstaff. My Ao^ with the black scut !— Let the sky rain 
potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of * Green Sleeves,' hail 
kissing-comfits and snow eringoes ; let there come a tempest 
of provocation, I will shelter me here. 

Mrs. Ford. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart. 20 

Falstaff, Divide me like a bribe buck, each a haunch; I 



ACT V, SCENE V, II9 

will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow of 
this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am 
I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Heme the hunter?— Why, 
now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution. 
As I am a true spirit, welcome ! \Noise within, 

Mrs. Page. Alas, what noise ? 

Mrs. Ford. Heaven forgive our sins ! 

Falstaff. What should this be ? 

Mrs. Ford. ) ^ , ^j^^^y ^^,^ ^^ 

Mrs. Page. ) 

Falstaff. I think the devil will not have me damned, lest 
the oil that 's in me should set hell on fire; he would never 
else cross me thus. 33 

Filter Sir Hugh Evans, as a Satyr ; another person, as Hob- 
goblin; Anne Page, as the Fairy Queen, attended by her 
Brother and others as Fairies, with tapers. 

Anne. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white, 
You moonshine revellers, and shades of night, 
You orphan heirs of fixed destiny, 
Attend your office and your quality. — 
Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes. 

Hobgoblin. Elves, list your names ; silence, you airy toys! — 
Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap. 40 

Where fires thou find'st unrak'd and hearths unswept. 
There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry; 
Our radiant queen hates sluts and sluttery. 

Falstaff. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall 
die. 
I '11 wink and couch. No man their works must eye. 

\Lies down upon his face. 

Evans. Where 's Bede?— Go you, and where you find a 
maid 
That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said, 
Raise up the organs of her fantasy, 



120 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 

Sleep she as sound as careless infancy; 

But those as sleep and think not on their sins, 50 

Pinch them, arms, legs, backsj shoulders, sides, and shins. 

A7ine, About, about ! 
Search Windsor Castle, elves, within and out. 
Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room; 
That it may stand till the perpetual doom, 
In state as wholesome as in state 't is fit, 
Worthy the owner, and the owner it. 
The several chairs of order look you scour 
With juice of balm and every precious flower ; 
Each fair instalment, coat, and several crest, 60 

With loyal blazon, evermore be blest ! 
And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing. 
Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring. 
The expressure that it bears, green let it be. 
More fertile-fresh than all the field to see; 
And * Honi soit qui mal y pense ' write 
In emerald tufts, flowers purple, blue, and white; 
Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery. 
Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee : 
Fairies use flowers for their charactery. 70 

Away ! disperse ! but till 't is one o'clock. 
Our dance of custom round about the oak 
Of Heme the hunter, let us not forget. 

Evans. Pray you, lock hand in hand ; yourselves in order 
set; 
And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be. 
To guide our measure round about the tree. — 
But, stay ! I smell a man of middle-earth. 

Falstaff. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest 
he transform me to a piece of cheese ! 

Hobgoblin. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth. 

Anne. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end : 81 

If he be chaste, the flame will back descend 



ACT V. SCENE V, 121 

And turn him to no pain; but if he start, 
It is the flesh of a corrupted heart. 

Hobgoblin, A trial, come ! 

Eva7is, Come, will this wood take fire? 

\They bum him with their tapers, 

Falstaff. Oh, oh, oh! 

Anne. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire ! — 
About him, fairies, sing a scornful rhyme ; 
And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time. 

Song. 

Fie on sinful fantasy I 90 

Fie on lust and luxury ! 

Lust is but a bloody fire ^ 

Kindled with unchaste desire^ 

Fed in hearty whose flames aspire 

As thoughts do blow them^ higher and higher. 

Finch him, fairies, mutually ; 

Finch him for his villany ; 

Finch him, and burn him, a?td turn him about, 

Till candles and starlight and 7noonshine be out. 

\During this song they pifich Falstaff. Doctor 
Caius comes one way a?td steals away a fairy 
in green; Slender another way and takes off a 
fairy in white; and Fenton comes and steals 
away Anne Fage. A noise of hunting is heard 
within. All the Fairies run away. Falstaff 
pulls off his buck's head, and rises. 

Enter Page, Ford, Mistress Page, and Mistress Ford. 

Fage. Nay, do not fly; I think we have watch'd you now. 
Will none but Heme the hunter serve your turn? loi 

Mrs. Fage. I pray you, come, hold up the jest no higher. — 
Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives? — 
See you these, husband? do not these fair yokes 
Become the forest better than the town? 



122 MERRY WIVES OF V/INDSOR, 

Ford, Now, sir, who 's a cuckold now? — Master Brook, 
Falstaff 's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns, 
Master Brook : and. Master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing 
of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds 
of money, which must be paid to Master Brook; his horses 
are arrested for it, Master Brook. m 

Mrs. Ford, Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never 
meet. I will never take you for my love again, but 1 will 
always count you my deer. 

Falstaff. I do begin to perceive that -I am made an ass. 

Ford, x\y, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant. 

Falstaff, And these are not fairies? I was three or four 
times in the thought they were not fairies; and yet the guilti- 
ness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers, drove 
the grossness of the foppery into a received belief, in despite 
of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they were fairies. 
See now how wit Qiay be made a Jack-a-Lenf, when 't is upon 
ill employment ! 

Evans, Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires, 
and fairies will not pinse you. 

Ford, Well said, fairy Hugh. 

Evans, And leave your jealousies too, I pray you. 

Ford, I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able 
to woo her in good English. 129 

Falstaff, Have I laid my brain in the sun and dried it, 
that it wants matter to prevent so gross o'erreaching as this? 
Am I ridden with a Welsh goat too? shall I have a coxcomb 
of frize? 'T is time I were choked wdth a piece of toasted 
cheese. 

Evans, Seese is not good to give putter; your pelly is all 
putter. 

Falstaff, Seese and putter! have I lived to stand at the 
taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough 
to be the decay of lust and late-walking through the realm. 

Mrs, Page, Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would 



ACT V. SCENE V. 



123 



have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and shoul- 
ders and have given ourselves without scruple to hell, that 
ever the devil could have made you our delight? 143 

Ford, What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax? 

Mrs, Page. A puffed man? 

Page. Old, cold, withered, and of intolerable entrails? 

Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Satan? 

Page. And as poor as Job? 

Ford. And as wicked as his wife? 

Evans. And given to fornications, and to taverns and sack 
and wine and metheglins, and to drinkings and swearings 
and starings, pribbles and prabbles? 152 

Falstaff. Well, I am your theme : you have the start of me ; 
I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel. 
Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me ; use me as you will. 

Ford. Marry, sir, we '11 bring you to Windsor, to one Mas- 
ter Brook, that you have cozened of money, to whom you 
should have been a pander; over and above that you have 
suflered, I think to repay that money will be a biting afflic- 
tion. 160 

Page. Yet be cheerful, knight; thou shalt eat a posset to- 
night at my house, where I will desire thee to laugh* at my 
wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her Master Slender hath 
married her daughter. 

Mrs. Page. [Aside] Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be 
my daughter, she is, by this. Doctor Caius' wife. 

Fnfer Slender. 

S/ender. Whoa, ho ! ho, father Page ! 

Page. Son, how now! how now, son ! have you dispatched? 

Slender. Dispatched ! I '11 make the best in Gloucester- 
shire know on 't; would I were hanged, la, else! 170 

Page. Of what, son ? 

Slender. T came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne 
Page, and she 's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i' 



124 



MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR, 



the church, I would have swinged him, or he should have 
swinged me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page, 
would I might never stir! — and 't is a postmaster's boy. 

Page. Upon my life, then, you took the wrong. 

Slender, What need you tell me that.^ I think so, when I 
took a boy for a girl. If I had been married to him, for all 
he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him. iSo 

Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you how 
you should know my daughter by her garments? 

Slender, I went to her in white, and cried ' mum,' and she 
cried ' budget,' as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was 
not Anne, but a postmaster's boy. 

Mrs, Page. Good George, be not angry; I knew of your 
purpose, turned my daughter into green, and, indeed, she is 
now with the doctor at the deanery, and there married. 

Enter Caius. 

Caius, Vere is Mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened : I 
ha' married un gargon, a boy; un paysan, by gar, a boy; it is 
not Anne Page : by gar, I am cozened. 191 

Mrs, Page. Why, did you take her in green ? 

Cauls. Ay, by gar, and 't is a boy ; by gar, I '11 raise all 
Windsor. \^Exit, 

Fo7'd. This is strange. Who hath got the right Anne? 

Page, My heart misgives me. Here comes Master Fen- 
ton. — 

Enter Fenton and Anne Page. 

How now. Master Fenton ! 

Anne. Pardon, good father!— good my mother, pardon! 

Page, Now, mistress, how chance you went not with Mas- 
ter Slender? 201 

Mrs. Page. Why went you not with master doctor, maid? 

Fenton. You do amaze her; hear the truth of it. 
You would have married her most shamefully, 
Where there was no proportion held in love. 



ACT V. SCENE V, 125 

The truth is, she and I, long since contracted. 

Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us. 

The offence is holy that she hath committed ; 

And this deceit loses the name of craft, 

Of disobedience, or unduteous title, 210 

Since therein she doth evitate and shun 

A thousand irreligious cursed hours, 

Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. 

Ford. Stand not amaz'd ; here is no remedy. 
In love the heavens themselves do guide the state; 
Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate. 

Falstaff. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand 
to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanced. 

Page. Well, what remedy? — Fenton, heaven give thee joy! 
What cannot be eschew'd must be embraced. 220 

Falstaff. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd. 

Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further. — Master Fenton, 
Heaven give you many, many merry days ! — 
Good husband, let us every one go home, 
And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire, — 
Sir John and all. 

Ford. Let it be so. — Sir John, 

To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word ; 
For he to-night shall lie with Mistress Ford. \Exeunt. 




NOTES 



ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THE NOTES. 

Abbott (or Gr.), Abbott's Shakespearian Grammar (third edition). 
A. S., Anglo-Saxon. 

A. v., Authorized Version of the Bible (1611). 

B. and F., Beaumont and Fletcher. 
B. J., Ben Jonson. 

Camb. ed., " Cambridge edition" of Shakespeare, edited by Clark and Wright. 

Cf. {confer), compare. 

Clarke, " Cassell's Illustrated Shakespeare," edited by Charles and Mary Cowden- 
Clarke (London, n. d.). 

Coll., Collier (second edition). 

Coll. MS., Manuscript Corrections of Second Folio, edited by Collier. 

D., D3'ce (second edition). 

H., Hudson ("Harvard" edition). 

Halliwell, J. O. Halliwell (folio ed. of Shakespeare). 

Id. {idern), the same. 

K., Knight (second edition). *» 

Nares, Glossary, edited by Halliwell and Wright (London, 1859). 

Prol., Prologue. 

S., Shakespeare. 

Schmidt, A. Schmidt's Shakespeare-Lexico7t (Berlin, 1874). 

Sr., Singer. 

St., Staunton. 

Theo., Theobald. 

v., Verplanck. 

W., R. Grant White. 

Walker, Wm. Sidney Walker's Critical Examination of the Text of Shakespeare 
(London, i860). 

Warb., Warburton. 

Wb., Webster's Dictionary (revised quarto edition of 1879). 

Wore, Worcester's Dictionary (quarto edition). 

The abbreviations of the names of Shakespeare's Plays will be readily understood ; as 
T. N. for Twelfth Night, Cor. for Coriola7ius, 3 Hen. VI. for The Third Part of Ki7ig 
Henry the Sixth, etc. P. P. refers to The Passiotiate Pilgrim ; V. and A . to Venus 
and Ado7tis ; L. C. to Lover's Complaint ; and So7t7i. to the So7i7iets. 

When the abbreviation of the name of a play is followed by a reference to page, 
Rolfe's edition of the play is meant. 
The numbers of the lines (except for the present play) are those of the " Globe " ed. 



NOTES. 




Bucklersbury in. simple time (iii. 3. 61). 

ACT I. 

Scene I. — i. Sir Hugh. The title 6'/r was formerly applied to priests 
and curates in general. " Do7?iimis, the academical title of a bachelor of 
arts, was usually rendered by Sir in English at the universities ; there- 
fore, as most clerical persons had taken that first degree, it became usual 



I30 NOTES. 

to style them Sir''' (Nares). Cf. "Sir Topas " in T. N. iv. 2. 2, etc. 
Halliwell quotes the Register of Burials at Cheltenham: " 1574, August 
xxxi, Sir John Evans, curate of Cheltenham, buried." 

A Star-chamber matter, Steevens quotes B. J., Magnetic Lady, iii. 4: 

" There is a court above, of the Star-chamber, 
To punish routs and riots." 

Halliwell adds from Sir John Harington's Epigrams, 1618 : 

" No marvel men of such a sumptuous dyet 
Were brought into the S tar-Chamber for a ryot." 

5. Coram. This word and armigero (the ablative case of armiger, 
bearer of arms, or esquire) occur in the form for attestations which Slen- 
der had seen ; wherein his cousin's name would thus appear: "Coram 
me Roberto Shallow armigero," etc. Slender also confuses the word 
with Quorum (Clarke). . 

6. Custaloruin. Probably a corruption of custos rotuloruin, keeper of 
the rolls. Ratolorum seems also to have been suggested by rotulorum. 
Farmer conjectured that Slender says "and custos,'^ and that Shallow 
adds "Ay, and rotulorum too;" but the old reading, with its muddling 
of the Latin terms, is in keeping with the characters. 

10. That I do, etc. Steevens adopted Farmer's conjecture of " we " 
for /; but Shallow speaks for " his successors gone before him " as well 
as himself. 

14. Luces. Pikes. The fish figured in the coat-of-arms of the Lucy 
family, and there is probably a hit here at Sir Thomas Lucy of Charle- 
cote, associated with the tradition of the poet's youthful jDoaching ex- 
ploits. Evans takes the word to refer to another animal, which " signi- 
fies love," Boswell tells us, " because it does not desert man in distress, 
but rather sticks more close to him in his adversity." 

19. The luce is the fresh fish, etc. Farmer explains this as follows : 
" Shallow had said just before that the coat is an old one ; and now that 
it is the luce, the fresh fish. No, replies the parson, it cannot be old and 
fresh too — the salt fish is an old coat." 

21. Quarter. A term in heraldry for combining the arms of another 
family with one's own by placing them in one of the four compartments 
of the shield. This, as Shallow intimates, was often done by marriage. 

23. Marring. There is an obvious play on marrying ; as in A. W. 
i'- 3- 315* "A young man married is a man that 's marr'd." Cf. also 
R. a7id y. p. 146, note on Made. 

25. Fy'r lady. The folios print " per - lady." They do not make 
Evans's "brogue" consistent throughout, and the modern editors gen- 
erally have not attempted to do it. Probably, as Capell says of Fluellen 
in ffeji. v., " the poet thought it sufficient to mark his diction a little, 
and in some places only." 

29. Compre7nises. Changed by Pope to "compromises," but the 
blunder is probably intentional. 

31. The council. That is, "' the court oi Star-cha77iber, composed chiefly 
of the king's council sitting in Ca7nera stellata,^\\\^\\ took cognizance of 
atrocious riots " (Blackstone), Cf. I above. 



ACT L SCENE I. 13 1 

34. Vizaments. That is, advisements ( = consideration), a common word 
then, though not used by S. d. Spenser, F. Q. il 5. 13 : " Tempring the 
passion with advizement slow," etc, 

41, George, The folios have *' Thomas" here, but George in ii. i. 133, 
141, and V. 5. 186. The correction is due to Theo. 

43. Mistress Anne Page. Mistress was the title of unmarried women 
down to the beginning of the last century. A MS- dated 17 16 (men- 
tioned by Halliwell) refers to " Mistress Elizabeth Seignoret, spinster." 
De Foe uses the term in this way in The Fortunes of Moll Flanders, 
1722. 

44. Speaks small. The later folios omit small. Cf. M. N. D. i. 2. 52 : 
"you may speak as small as you will," etc. 

50. Fribbles and prabbles. Pi'ibbles is a word of the Welshman's own 
coining. For prabbles i^— brabbles, quarrels, as in T N. v. i. (^%\ ** In 
private brabble," etc.) c£ Fluellen's " prawls and prabbles " in Hen. V, 
iv. 8. 69. 

52. Did her grandsire, etc. The folios give this speech and the next 
but one to Slender, but the context clearly favours Capell's transfer of 
them to Shallow, and the emendation is generally adopted. Coll., the 
Camb. editors, and V. follow the folio ; and V. remarks : " though they 
suit Shallow very well, yet it seems a more natural touch of humour to 
make Slender, so negatively indifferent to all other matters, struck with 
admiration at the legacy." 

57. Fossibilities. '* Possessions " (Halliwell). A MS. in Dulwich Col- 
lege (of about the year 1610) reads: "if we geete the fathers good will 
first, then may we bolder spake to the datter, for my possebeletis is abel 
to manteyne her." In the present passage, however, the word may refer 
to what she is likely to receive from her father. 

80, Falloiv, Pale yellow. Halliwell quotes the Mirror for Magis- 
trates^ 1587 : " Although my face bee falloe, puft, and pale." 

81. On Cotsall. That is, on the Cots wold downs in Gloucestershire, 
celebrated for coursing, for which their fine turf fitted them, and also for 
other rural sports. The allusion is not in the first sketch of the play, 
and is one of the little points indicating that it was not revised until after 
the accession of James, in the beginning of whose reign the Cotswold 
games were revived- See p. ii above. Cf Rich. II. ii. 3. 9 and 2 Hen. 
IV. iii. 2. 23. 

84- Fault. Explained by Malone and Schmidt as == misfortune, bad 
luck ; as perhaps in iii. 3. 190 below, Schmidt compares Per. iv. 2. 79. 

103- But not kissed your keeper'' s daughter? Some of the critics have 
supposed this to be a quotation from an old ballad. Sir Walter Scott, 
in Kenilworth, suggests that it was part of the charge made against S. by 
Sir Thomas Lucy. 

108. I7t counsel. There seems to be a play on counsel = secrecy. 
Malone quotes Howel's Proverbial Sentences: "Mum is counsell, viz. 
silence." 

III. Worts. "The ancient name of all the cabbage kind" (Steevens). 
Cf. the modern colewort, and see also Wb. Baret, in his Alvearie, 1580, 
defines 7£/^;'/j- as " all kind of hearbes that serve for the potte." 



132 NOTES, 

114. Cony-catching. Thieving, cheating. Cf. T. of S. p. 154. Robert 
Greene published a pamphlet exposing the " Frauds and Tricks of 
Coney-catchers and Couzeners." 

115. They carried me » . . my pockets. This' is not found in the folio^ 
but was supplied by Malone from the ist quarto. That it belongs here 
is evident from 136 below. 

117. You Banbury cheese ! A hit at the thinness of Slender, Banbury 
cheese being proverbially thin. Steevens quotes Jack Drum's Entertain- 
ment^ 1601 : '' Put off your cloathes, and you are like a Banbury cheese 
— nothing but paring;" and Heywood, Epigrams: 

"I never saw Banbury cheese thick enough, 
But I have oft seen Essex cheese quick enough.'* 

Camden, in his Britajznia, speaks of Banbury as " nunc autem conficiendo 
caseo notissimum." Holland, in his translation, 1610, renders this : 
" Now the fame of this towne is for zeale, cheese, and cakes." There is 
a story that Holland wrote ^' ale " instead of " zeale," and that Camden, 
happening to see it as the sheet was going through the press, and think- 
ing the expression too light, made the change ; but Camden himself con- 
tradicted this and said that "zeale" was inserted by the compositor or 
printer. 

119. Mephostophilus. The Mephistopheles of the legend of Faust, to 
which there is another allusion in iv. 5. 61 below. Warton and Steevens 
give several contemporaneous examples of the use of the word as a term 
of abuse. 

121. Pauca.pauca ! That is.pauca verba (few words), as in no above. 
Cf. Hen. V. ii. i. 83 (Pistol's speech) : *' and, pauca ; there 's enough." 

Slice is probably a slang verb =: cut (either in the sense of "cut and 
run," be off, as Clarke explains, or of cutting with a sword, as others 
make it) ; but Schmidt takes it to be a noun, and another hit at the thin 
Slender. 

That 's 77ty humour. The word humour was worn threadbare in the 
fashionable talk of the time, as is evident from many allusions and satiri- 
cal hits in contemporary literature. Steevens quotes the following epi- 
gram from Humors O r dinar ie^ 1607 : 

"Aske Humours what a feather he doth weare, 
It is his hujnotir (by the Lord) he'll sweare ; 
Or what he doth with such a horse-taile locke, 
Or why upon a whore he spends his stocke, — 
He hath a humour doth determine so: 
Why in the stop-throte fashion he doth goe, 
With scarfe about his necke, hat without band,— 
It is his humour. Sweet Sir, understand, 
What cause his purse is so extreme distrest 
That oftentimes is scarcely penny-blest ; 
Only a humour. If you question, why 
His tongue is ne^er unfurnish'd with a lye,— 
It is his humour too he doth protest: 
Or why with sergeants he is so opprest, 
That like to ghosts they haunt him ev'rie day; 
A rascal humour doth refuse to pay. 
Object why bootes and spurres are still in season. 
His humour answers, humour is his reason. 



ACT I. SCENE L 133 

If you perceive his wits in wetting shrunke, 

It Cometh of a humour to be drunke. 

When you behold his lookes pale, thin, and poore, 

The occasion is, his humour and a whoore; 

And every thing that he doth undertake, 

It is a veine, for senseless humour's sake." 

134. The tevil and his tarn. We have several allusions to " the devil's 
dam " in S. Cf. T. of S. p. 152. 

135, It is affectatio7ts. Puttenham, in his Art cf English Poesie, 1589, 
gives it as an example of pleonasmus," or " too full speech " — " as if one 
should say, I heard it with mine eares, and saw it with mine eyes, as if a 
man could heare with his heeles, or see with his nose." Some of the 
critics have taken the trouble to point out that it is a Scriptural expres- 
sion. 

138. Great chamber. Hall, saloon. Cf. M. N, D. iii. I. 58: "Leave a 
casement of the great chamber window, where we play, open, and the 
moon may shine in ;" and R, ajid y. i. 5, 14 ; " You are looked for . . . 
in the great chamber." 

139. Mill-sixpences. Old English coin, first milled^ or coined, in 1561. 
The groat was fourpence ; and making, seven groats in sixpences is of 
course an intentional blunder, 

Edward shovel-hoards were the broad shillings of Edward VL, which 
were generally used in playing the game of shovel-board or shove-board. 
See 2 Hen. IV. p. 169, note on Quoit him. Nares remarks that the wis- 
dom of Slender is shown by his paying " two shillings and twopence " for 
a svtooth or well-worn shilling ; but it is possible that these old shovel- 
boards commanded a premium on account of being in demand for the 
game. We find allusions to their being carefully kept for this purpose. 
An old shovel-board was long preserved at the Falcon inn at Stratford 
(we believe it is the one now shown in the house at New Place), which 
tradition says was used by S. himself. 

145. latten bilbo. Latten was a soft alloy of copper and calamine ; 
and bilbo was a name applied to a sword, from Bilboa in Spain, a place 
famous for its blades. Cf. iii. 5. 96 below : ** like a good bilbo." Latteit 
bilbo is a hit at Slender's cowardice, implying that he was as weak and 
edgeless as a blade oi latten ; with possibly the added idea that he was 
as thin as a sword-blade. 

146. In thy labras. Literally, in thy lips ; an expression like ** in thy 
teeth," 'Mn thy face," etc. The ist quarto reads here : 

'■^Pistol. Sir John, and Maister mine, I combat craue 
Of this same laten bilbo. I do retort the lie 
Euen in thy gorge, thy gorge, thy gorge." 

H. says that labras is " Spanish for lips.'''' It is a corruption of lahios^ 
the Spanish for lips ; perhaps suggested hy palabras, for which see Mnch 
Ado^ p. 151. Johnson conjectured "my labras." . 

149. Be avised. Be advised = listen to reason. Cf. i. 4. 89 below. 

150. Marry trap. Johnson says: "When a man was caught in his 
own stratagem, I suppose the exclamation of insult was marry, trap T 
Nares remarks that it is " apparently a kind of proverbial exclamation, 



134 



NOTES. 



as much as to say, * By Mary, you are caught !' . . . but the phrase wants 
further illustration." No other instance of it has been pointed out, and 
the meaning can be only guessed at. Marry was originally a mode of 
swearing by the Virgin Mary, but this had doubtless come to be forgotten 
in the time of S, 

Nut-hook was "a term of reproach for a catch-pole''' (Johnson), Cf, 2 
Heii. IV. V. 4, 8 : " Nuthook, nuthook, you lie I" Steevens makes if you 
rtm the nuthook'' s hui?ioitr on 7iie — "''\i^ow say I am a thief;" that is, as 
a constable might. 

155. Scarlet and John, "The names of two of Robin Hood's men ; 
but the humour consists in the allusion to Bardolph's red face " (Warb.). 
Cf. the ballad of Robin Hood's Delight: 

•' But I will tell you of Will Scarlet, 
Little John and Robin Hood." 

159. Fap, A cant term for drunk. Some have attempted to derive it 
from the Latin vappa, and have assumed that Slender recognized it as 
Latin ; but the origin of the word is uncertain. That Slender should 
take Bardolph's fantastic dialect for Latin is a humorous touch which 
the dullest of critics ought to appreciate, 

160. Conclusions passed the careers. This bit of boozy rhodomontade 
has been " Greek " to the commentators, as it was Latin to Slender, and 
they have worried much over the interpretation of it. Johnson says it 
" means that the co77imon boicnds of good behaviour are overpassed^'"' which 
is very like Bardolph ! To pass the career, according to Douce, was, like 
7'unning a career, a technical term for " galloping a horse violently back- 
wards and forwards, stopping him suddenly at the end of the career''' 
Malone and Schmidt think that Bardolph means to say, "and so in the 
end he reeled about like a horse passing a career." Clarke suggests 
that the idea is, "and their words ran high, at full gallop." The reader 
may take his choice, or expound the passage for himself. For careers 
the folios have "car-eires," which was "Englished" by Capell. 

162. But in honest, civil, godly company, etc. See p. 15 above. 

178. Book of Songs and Sonnets, " He probably means the Poems of 
Lord Surrey and others, which were very popular in the age of Queen 
Elizabeth. They were printed in 1567 with this title: ^ Songes and'Sojt- 
nettes, written by the Right Honourable Lord Henry HoAvard, late Earle 
of Surrey, and others.' Slender laments that he has not this fashionable 
book about him, supposing it might have assisted him in paying his ad- 
dresses to Anne Page " (Malone). 

The Book of Riddles, mentioned just below, was another popular book. 
Reed says it is enumerated with others in The English Courtier, ajid 
Country 'Gentleman, 1586. Halliwell gives a fac-simile of the title-page 
of one edition, which reads thus ; "The | Booke of | Meery. | Riddles. | 
Together with proper Que- | stions, and witty Prouerbs to | make pleas- 
ant pastime, | No lesse vsefuU than behoouefuU | for any yong man or 
child, to know if | he bee quick-witted, or no. | London, | Printed by T. 
C. for Michael Sparke, \ dwelling in Greeiie- Arbor, at the | signe of the 
blue Bible, | 1629." He quotes many of the riddles, and we copy a few 
of the shortest as samples : 



ACT I. SCENE I, 135 

'^The li. Riddle.— My lovers will 

I am content for to fuljfill ; _ 

Within this rime his name is framed; 

Tell me then how he is named? 

Solution. — His name is William ; for in the first line is w///, and in the beginning of the 
second line is / am^ and then put them both together, and it maketh IViilicun. 

The liv. Riddle. — How many calves tailes will reach to the skye? Solutio7i. — One, 
if it be long enough. 

The Ixv. Riddle. — What is that, round as a ball, 

Longer than Pauls steeple, weather-cocke, and all? 

Solution.— \\ is a round bottome of thred when it is unwound. 

The Ixvii. Riddle.— V^hdX is that, that goeth thorow the wood, and toucheth never a 
twig? Solution. — It is the blast of a home, or any other noyse." 

For bottom— h2i\\ of thread, see T. of S. p. 164. It will be noted that the 
book was printed by Thomas Creede, who printed the ist quarto of M. 
W. See p. 9 above, 

.184. Michaelmas. As All-hallowmas is almost five weeks after Michael- 
mas, Theo. changed this to " Martlemas." He says : " The simplest 
creatures (nay, even naturals) generally are very precise in the knowledge 
of festivals, and marking how the seasons run." This is true ; but the 
blunder here may nevertheless be intentional. 

197. Si7nple though I stand here. A common phrase of the time, 
of which Halliwell gives many examples ; as from The Relume fr 0171 
Parnassus^ 1606: *' I am Stercutio, his father, sir, simple as I stand 
here." 

208. Parcel of the mouth. That is, part of it ; as in the phrase " part 
and parcel." This sense oi parcel is very common in S. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. 
iii. 2. 159 : " Ere break the smallest parcel of this vow," etc. ; Cor. iv. 5. 
231 ; '*A parcel of their feast." For inouth Pope reads "mind," 

225. Conte77ipt. The folios have " content ;" but Theo. is probably 
right in seeing here a blundering use of the familiar proverb. As 
Steevens points out, we have a similar misuse of contempt in L. L. L. i. i. 
191 : "Sir, the contempts thereof [that is, of the letter] are as touching 
me." 

227. Fall. Used by Evans iox fault. Hanmer prints "fauF," Sr. 
"fair," and D. "faul." 

242. Attends. Waits for; as in Rich. II. i.^. 116; "Attending but 
the signal to begin," etc. 

246. Beholding. " Beholden " (Pope's reading, but a word never used 
by S.). See M. of V. p. 135, or Gr. 372. 

256. A master offence. According to an old MS. in the British Mu- 
seum, there were three degrees in the " noble science of defence," namely, 
a master's, a provost's, and a scholar's (Steevens). A veney (also spelt 
venew,^ venue^ etc.) was a thrust or hit in fencing. Cf. Z. L. L. v. i. 62 : 
"a quick venue of wit." Here the dish of stewed prtmes was the wager 
which was to be paid by him who received three hits. Malone quotes 
BuUokar, English Expositor^ 1616: ^^ Venie. A touch in the body at 
playing with weapons;" and Florio, 7/^:/. Diet. 1598: " Tocco. A touch 
or feeling. Also a venie at fence ; a hit," The word came also to 
mean a bout or turn at fencing. 



136 



NOTES, 



265. That V meat and drink to me, A popular phrase that has come 
down to our day. Cf. A, V. Z. v. i. 11 : "It is meat and drink to me to 
see a clown." 

266. Sacke7'soii. A famous bear exhibited at Paris Garden (see Hen, 
VI 11. p. 202) in Southwaik. M alone quotes an old epigram : 

" Publius, a student of the common law, 
To Paris-garden doth himself withdraw ; 
Leaving old Ployden, Dyer, and Broke, alone, 
To see old Harry Hunkes and Sacarson." 

For the bear to get loose was a serious matter. Halliwell quotes 
Machyn's Diary for 1554: "The sam day at after-non was a bere- 
beytyn on the Bankesyde, and ther the grette blynd bere broke losse, 
and in ronnyng away he chakt a servyngman by the calff of the lege, and 
bytt a gret pesse away, . . . that with-in iij days after he ded." 

268. Passed. That is, passed description. Cf. iv. 2. 120 below : "This 
passes." See also T. and C. i. 2. 182: "all the rest so laughed that it 
passed." Boswell quotes The Maid of the Mill : 

"Come, follow me, you country lasses, 
And you shall see such sport as passes." 

273. By cock and pie. A petty oath of the time, occurring again in 2 
Hen. IV. V. I. I. Its origin is matter of dispute. See a long note on the 
subject in 2 Hen. IV. p. 195. 

Scene II. — 4. Wringer. The folios have " Ringer." 
II. Seese, The folios have "cheese;" corrected by D. See on i. i. 
25 above. . 

Scene III. — 2. Bully-rook. . A favourite epithet with mine host, and, as 
used by him, equivalent to plain bully. It was sometimes a term of re- 
proach (==" a hectoring, cheating sharper," as an old dictionary, quoted 
by Douce, defines it), and was often spelt " bully-rock," as in some of 
the modern eds. of S. 

7. I sit at ten pounds a week. My expenses are ten pounds a week. 
Halliwell quotes The Man in the Moone^ etc, 1609 : "they sit at an un- 
merciful rent." 

8. Keisar. Another form of Ccssar, added like Phee^ar (a word of the 
host's own coining, perhaps suggested by pheeze^ for which see T, of S. 
p. 124) for the sake of the rhyme. 

9. Entertain. Take into service ; as in 48 below. Cf. Much Ado^ i. 3. 
60 : "entertained for a perfumer;" and see our ed. p. 127. 

13. Froth and lime. The folios have "line" for lime; corrected by 
Steevens from the ist quarto, which has "lyme." Frothing beer and 
limijtg sack, or putting lime in it (see I Hen. IV. p. 165, note on Lime) 
were tapster's tricks in the time of S. T\\t frothing \s said to have been 
done by putting soap into the bottom of the tankard when the beer was 
drawn. Cotgrave's Wits Interpreter says that the trick can be thwarted 
if the customer will watch his opportunity and rub the inside of the 
tankard with the skin of a red herring. 



ACT L SCENE III. 137 

18. Hungariait, The reading of the folios. The quartos have " Gon- 
garian." Himgarian was a cant term for "a hungry^ starved fellow." 
So says Malone, who cites Hall, Satires^ iv. 2 : 

" So sharp and meager that who should them see 
Would sweare they lately came from Hungary." 

Steevens quotes, among other illustrations of the word, Dekker, News 
from Hell^ 1606 : "the lean-jawed Hungarian would not lay out a penny 
pot of sack for himself" 

20. Is not the humour conceited? Theo. adds here, from the quarto, 
*' His mind is not heroic, and there 's the humour of it." 

25. At a mmim's rest. The folios have "minutes," but the preceding 
reference to music favours Langton's conjecture of minim's^ which is 
adopted by many of the editors. Cf R. and J, ii. 4. 22 : "rests me his 
minim rest, one, two, and the third in your bosom." 

26. Convey. A cant term for steal. See Rich. II. p. 206. 

A fico for the phrase! That is, a fig for it. Cf Hen. V. iii. 6. 60 : 
"and figo for thy friendship !" See our ed. p. 54. Fico is the Italian, 
2isfigo is the Spanish, ion fig. 

29. Kibes. Chaps or sores in the heel. Cf Te7?tp. ii. i. 276, IIa7n. v. 
I. 153, and Lea7% i. 5. 9. For cony-catchy see on i. i. 114 above. 

31. Young ravens 7nust have food. A proverb in Ray's collection. 

37. Waste. Steevens remarks that the same play upon waste and waist 
is found in Hey wood's Epigrams, 1562 : 

"Where am I least, husband? quoth he, in the waist; 
Which Cometh of this, thou art vengeance strait lac'd. 
Where am I biggest, wife? in the waste, quote she. 
For all is waste in you, as far as I see." 

He might have added that we find it again in FalstafTs own mouth, in 
2 Hen. IV. i. 2. 160 : 

" Chief- justice. Your means are very slender, and your waste is great. 
FaJstaff. I would it were otherwise ; I would my means were greater, and my waist 
slender." 

39. Carves. To carve for a person was considered a mark of favour or 
affection, as is evident from C. of E. ii. 2. 120, and the quotations given 
in the note on that passage in our ed. p. 120 ; but other allusions to 
cai'ving in writers of the time show that the word also meant certain 
gestures expressing recognition and favour. D. quotes Day's lie of Gulls, 
1606: "Her amorous glances are her accusers ; . . . she carves thee at 
boord, and cannot sleepe for dreaming on thee in bedde." W. adds, 
from Overbury, A Ve^y Woman : " Her lightnesse gets her to swim at 
the top of the table, where her wrie little finger bewraies carving; her 
neighbours at the latter end know they are welcome," etc. See also Lit- 
tleton's Latin- English Lexicon, 1675 : "^ carver: chironomus ;" " Chi- 
ronomus : one that useth apish motions with his hands ;" " Chironomia: 
a kind of gesture with the hands, either in dancing, carving of meat, or 
pleading." This is probably the meaning of the word here. 

43. Well . . . ///. The conjecture of the Camb. editors. The folios 
have " will . . . will ;" and the quartos well, omitting what follows. 



138 



NOTES. 



45. Anchor, Johnson conjectured "author," since he could not see 
"what relation the anchor has to translatiofi ;''' but as Malone suggests, 
Nym probably means nothing more than that " the scheme for debauch- 
ing Ford's wife is deep." 

47. Angels, The angel was an English gold coin, worth about ten 
shillings. It took its name from having on one side a figure of Michael 
piercing the dragon. The device is said to have originated in Pope 
Gregory's pun on Angli and Angeli^ and it gave rise to many puns. See 
C. of E, iv. 3. 41, Much Ado, ii. 3. 35, M, of V. ii. 7. 56, and 2 Hen, IV. i. 
2. 187. 




GOLDEN ANGEL OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



48. Entertain, Take into your service. See on 9 above. 
50. Writ 7ne. For the me, see Gr. 220. Cf. ii. i. 204 below. 
52. CEillades, Amorous glances ; as in Lear, iv. 5. 25 : 

*' She gave strange oeillades and most speaking looks 
To noble Edmund." 

'See our ed. p. 242. Halliwell adopts Pope's conjecture of " eyelids." 
The spelling of the word in the folios is " illiads." 

55. Then did the snn on dimghill shine. Holt White quotes Lyly, Eu- 
phues: "The sun shineth upon the dunghill." 

58. Intention. Bent, aim ; as in the only other instance of the word in 
S., W, T, i. 2. 138: "Affection! thy intention stabs the centre." Some, 
however, make intention here=^intentness. 

60. Guiana. The only allusion to the country in S. Sir Walter Ra- 
leigh had returned in 1596 from his expedition to South America, and 
had published glowing accounts of the great wealth of Guiana in his book 
entitled " The Discoverie of the Large, Rich, and Bewtiful Empyre of 
Guiana, with a relation of the great and golden Citie of Manoa, which 
the Spanyards call El Dorado," etc. But long before this, in 1569, John 
Hawkins had published the account of his voyage .to " the Parties of 
Guynea and the West Indies." 

61. Bounty. The Coll. MS. has "beauty;" omitted in the collation 
of the Camb. ed. 

Cheater. Escheator ; an officer of the exchequer, whose duty it was 



AC 7^ I. SCENE JV. 



^39 



to collect forfeitures to the crown. Cheater was the vulgar corruption 
of the name. Cf. 2 He7t, /F. p. 167, note on A tame cheater. 

69. Haviour. Equivalent to behaviour, but not a contraction of that 
word. See Wb. s. v. 

70. Tightly. " Cleverly, adroitly " (Malone) ; as in ii. 3. 57 below. Cf. 
the adjective in A. and C. iv. 4. 15, and see our ed. p. 203. The ist folio 
has tightly, but the later folios "rightly." The former reading is con- 
firmed by the "titely" of the ist quarto. 

71. Pinnace. A small vessel, chiefly used, according to Rolt's Diet, of 
Co7Hmerce, " as a scoutiox intelligence* and for landing of men " (Malone). 

74. Hu7nonr. The folios have " honour ;" corrected by Theo. from 
the ist quarto. 

75. French thrift, etc. " Falstaif says he shall imitate an economy 
then practised in France of making a single page serve in lieu of a train 
of attendants " (Clarke). 

76. Gilts. Not so offensive a word in olden times as now. See Ham. 
p. 241. 

Gourds were a kind of false dice, probably with a secret cavity in them, 
2a'\dfulla7?is such as had been loaded. Efigh 7ne7i and lozv men were cant 
terms for high and low numbers on dice (Malone). Steevens quotes 
Dekker's Belma7i of Londo7i, where among the false dice are mentioned 
"a bale of fullams " and "a bale of gordes, with as many high-men as 
low-men for passage." 

78. Tester. Sixpence. Cf. 2 Heri. IV. iii. 2. 296, and see our ed. p. 179. 
_ 84. To Page. The folio has "to Ford" and "to Page" in the next 
line ; corrected by Steevens from the ist quarto. That the latter is 
right is evident from ii. i. 97 fol. below. 

90. Yellowness. Changed by Pope to "jealousies;" but as Johnson 
notes, ^^yellow7tess is jealousy." 

91. The revolt of 77ii7ie. Apparently Nym's "humour" for 77iy revolt; 
but the commentators have changed it to "this revolt of mine," "the 
revolt of mien" (^appearance, look), etc., to make it less fantastical. 

Scene IV. — 4. A71 old abusi7ig. For this colloquial use of old as a 
mere intensive, cf. Macb. ii. 3. 2: "old turning of the key;" and see our 
ed. p. 197. 

7. Soo7i at 7iight. "This very night" (Schmidt) ; as in ii. 2. 250, 253 
below. Cf. M.for M. i. 4. 88, 2 Hen. IV. v. 5. 96, etc. 

A posset, according to Randle Holme, in his Acade77iy of A7'7noii7'ie, 
1688 (quoted by Malone in note on Macb. ii. 2. 6), is " hot milk poured on 
ale or sack, having sugar, grated bisket, and eggs, with other ingredients, 
boiled in it, which goes all to a curd." This explains why the posset is 
often spoken of as eate7t ; as in v. 5. 161 below. 

8. At the latter e7td of a sea-coal fire. " That is, when my master is in 
bed " (Johnson). 

10. B7'eed-bate. Breeder of dispute or strife. Cf. bate-breedi7ig in V. 
and A. 655 : "This sour informer, this bate-breeding spy." See also 2 
Hen. IV. ii. 4. 271 ; " and breeds no bate with telling of discreet stories ;" 
and the note in our ed. p. 171. 



I40 ' NOTES, 

12. Peevish, Silly, childish; the ordinary if not the only meaning in 
S. See Hen, V. p. 171. 

19. Wee. Capell reads " whey." 

20. Cain-coloiLred. That is, like the colour of Cain's beard and hair in 
the old pictures ; yellowish, or, according to some, reddish. Pope reads 
" cane-coloured," that is, yellowish like cane. In the quartos the word 
is *' Kane," in the folios " Caine " or *' Cain." 

2\. Softly- sprighted. Gentle-spirited. Cf j/^/^/^^— spirit, in V,andA. 
181, R. of L. 121, Macb. iv. i. 127, etc. Spi7'it is often a monosyllable in 
S. ; as in M, N, D, ii. i. i. Ham. i. i. 161, etc. 

22. As tall a man of his hands. As able-bodied a man. Cf. W. T. v. 
2. 178: "thou art a tall fellow of thy hands;" and see our ed. p. 211. 
Tall was often = stout, sturdy ; as in ii. i. 204 and ii. 2. 9 below. Cf. T. 
N. p. 123. 

23. A warrener, A keeper of a warren^ or enclosure for birds or 
beasts, especially rabbits. 

32. Shent. Rated, scolded; as in T. N. iv. 2. 112: *'I am shent for 
speaking to you," etc. See also Ham. p. 231. 

35. Doubt. Suspect, fear ; as often. Cf. Ham. i. 2. 256 : *' I doubt 
some foul play," etc. 

37. And down^ down, etc. ".To deceive her master, she sings as if at 
her work" (Sir John Hawkins). 

43. Hoi'n-mad. Mad as an angry bull ; mostly used of a cuckold. 
See iii. 5. 132 below, and cf. C, of E, ii» i. 57 : 

'"'' Dromio of E. Why, mistress, sure my master .is horn-hiad. 

Adriana. Horn-mad, thou villain! 

Dromio of E. I mean not cuckold-mad ; 

But, sure, he is stark mad." 

44. Mafoi, etc. Printed thus in the folio: ^^maifoy, il fait for ehando^ 
le man voi a le Court la gra7td affaires f^ corrected by Rowe. 

51. Jack Rugby, Alluding to the contemptuous use oi Jack : as in 104 
below. Cf I Hen, IV, v. 4. 143 : "if I be not Jack Falstaff, then am I a 
Jack," etc. 

6o» Larron, The folio has " La-roone." 

66. Phlegmatic. Mrs. Quickly is using a word that is too much for 
her. The Var. of 1821, by the by, misprints it "flegmarick." 

75. / 7/ ne'^er put my finger^ etc. This was a proverbial phrase of the 
time, and is recorded by Ray, who explains it thus : " meddle not with a 
quarrel voluntarily, wherein you need not be concerned." 

78. Bailie, The folios have " ballow ;" and Theo. reads "baillez." 

80. Throughly. Used by S. oftener than thoroughly. Cf M. of V. 
p. 144, note on Throughfares. 

89, Are you avised o' that? Are your aware of that? equivalent to 
"You may well say that." Cf M. for M, ii. 2. 132: "Art avis'd o' 
that?" See also on i. i. 149 above. It was a common expression in 
that da3^ 

108. The good-year I Supposed to be a corruption oi gotijere, and — 
*' Pox on 't !" {T. N. iii. 4. 308). It is found in the early eds. diSgood-ier, 



ACT 11. SCENE L 141 

good-yeere, good-yere, 2ix\d good-year. Hanmer prints "goujeres" here, 
and Johnson "goujere." The origin of the expression appears some- 
times to have been forgotten ; for we find in Holyband's FreJich Little- 
ton, ed. 1609 : "God give you a good morrow and a good yeare, — Dieii 
vous doit boil jour et bofi an.'' Halliweil gives several similar examples. 

112. You shall have AnfooVs head, etc, A play on Ann. An and ajie 
were broad pronmiciations of one (Halliwell). AfooPs head of your own 
was a common expression. Cf. M. N, D. iii. i. 1 19 : " What do you see ? 
you see an ass-head of your own, do you ?" 

117. I trow. Literally, I know or believe; but here " nearly = 1 won- 
der" (Schmidt), Cf, ii. i, 56 below. See also Mtich Ado, p. 150. 

132. Detest. Protest, of course. Elbow makes the same blunder in 
M.for M. ii. 1.69, 75. 

135. Go to. A common phrase of encouragement (as here and in ii. i. 
6 and iii. 3. 32 below), or reproof (as in Temp. v. i. 297, etc.). 

140. Cojtjidence. For the blundering use ( = conference), cf. Much Ado^ 
iii. 5. 3 and R. and J. ii. 4. 133. 



ACT II, 

Scene I. — i. Scaped. Not a contraction oi escaped. The Camb. and 
•Globe eds. print "scaped" here, and "scape" in iii. 5. loi below, but 
"'scape" in iii. 5. 126. 

5, Physician. The folios have "precisian ;" corrected by D. (the con- 
jecture of Johnson). Cf. Sonn. 147. 5 : " My reason, the physician to my 
love." 

8. Sack. " The generic name of Spanish and Canary wines " (Schmidt). 
We find " Sherris sack" in 2 Hen. iv. 3, 104. See our ed. p. 188. 

9. Of soldier. The 3d and 4th folios have " of a soldier." 

17. Herod of Jewry. Herod was a common personage in the old 
dramatic mysteries, where he generally appeared as a swaggering tyrant. 
Cf. Ham. p. 221. 

19. Unweighed. Inconsiderate. Cf. unweighing (== thoughtless) in 
M. for M. iii. 2. 147. 

20. Flemish drunkard. The Flemish were notorious for their intem- 
perance. The only other reference to them in S. is in ii. 2. 267 below. 

21. Conversation. Behaviour; as in A. and C. ii. 6. 131 : " Octavia is 
of a holy, cold, and still conversation," etc. Cf. Ps. xxxvii. 14, 1. 23. 

24. Exhibit a bill, etc. Chalmers thought this to be " a sarcasm on the 
many bills which were unadvisedly moved in the parliament which began 
Nov. 5, 1605, and ended May 26, 1606." 

25. Putting down of 7nen. Many of the editors follow Theo. in the in- 
sertion of " fat " before men ; but surely there is no sufficient reason for 
the emendation. Cf. what Mrs. Page says in 71 below : " I will find you 
twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste man." There is the same merry 
extravagance here as there, 

26. Puddings. Halliwell remarks that entrails were often termed /«^- 



142 NOTES. 

dings^ and adds that " as sure as his guts are puddings " is still heard in 
the North of England. Y ox guts ^ see on i. 3. 76 above. 

45. Sir Alice Foi'd ! This was not without actual precedent. Queen 
Elizabeth knighted Mary, the lady of Sir Hugh Cholmondeley, "the 
bold lady of Cheshire." The ceremony took place at Tilbury in 1588. 

These knights will hack. This probably means that they will become 
hackneyed, or cheap and vulgar, as Blackstone explained it. Cf. p. 10 
above. Some make hack = do mischief. Johnson wanted to read " we '11 
hack," seeing a reference to the punishment of a recreant knight by hack- 
ing off his spurs ; and Clarke thinks that the meaning may be " Your 
companion knights would hack you from them ; and thus you would not 
improve your degree of rank." 

48. We burn dayligfit. We waste time ; as is evident from the other 
instance of the expression in R. and J. i. 4. 43 : 

''^ MerctUio. Come, we burn daylight, ho! 

Romeo. Nay, that 's not so. 

Mercutio- I mean, sir, in delay 

We waste our lights in vain, like lamps by day." 

50. Men'' s liking. That is, their bodily condition. Cf. I Hen. IV. iii. 3. 
6 : " I '11 repent, while I am in some liking " (that is, while I have some 
flesh). See also y(?^, xxxix. 4 : "Their young ones are in good liking." 
In Baret's Alvearie we find, " If one be in better plight of bodie, or bet- 
ter liking. Si qua habitior paulo, pugilem esse aiunt. Ter." 

55. Hundredth Psalm. The folios have " hundred Psalms ;" corrected* 
by Rovve. 

56. Green Sleeves was a popular song of a very free sort. It is men- 
tioned again in v. 5. 17 below. 

60. Melted him in his ow7t grease. Steevens quotes Chaucer, C. T. 
6069 : " That in his owen grese I made him frie." 

69. Pi-ess. " Used ambiguously, for a press to print, and a press to 
squeeze " (Johnson). 

71. Turtles. That is, turtle-doves ; the emblem of chaste and faithful 
love. Cf. iii. 3. 34 below. 

76. Honesty. Chastity ; as in 88, ii. 2. 66, 209 below. Cf. the adjective 
in i. 4. 122 at30ve, and 213, ii. 2. 198, iv. 2. 91, etc., below. 

78. Strain. "Impulse, feeling" (Schmidt); or, perhaps, natural dis- 
position or tendency. Cf. iii. 3. 162 below ; " all of the same strain." 
There, however, it may be figuratively = stock, race ; as in J. C. v. i. 59 : 
" the noblest of thy strain," etc. In all these we see the common idea 
of something native, natural, or innate. The Coll. MS. has "stain," 
which was Pope's reading. 

79. Boarded 7ne. Cf. Much Ado, ii. I. 149 : " I would he had boarded 
me ;" Ham. ii. 2. 170 : " I '11 board him presently," etc. 

88. Chari7iess. Nicety, scrupulousness; the only instance of the noun 
in S. 

O, that my husband saw this letter! Steevens conjectured, " O, if my 
husband," etc. But, as W. remarks, the speech is in keeping with Mrs. 
Ford's character (cf. iii. 3. 154 below, for instance), and must be ascribed 
to "mingled merriment and malice." 



ACT II. SCENE /. 143 

94. You are the happier woman. At first glance this seems inconsist- 
ent with what has been said in the last note. On the contrary, it is in 
perfect keeping therewith, and thoroughly feminine and natural. 

98. Curtal. Having a docked tail. Cf. C. of E. iii. 2. 151 : " She had 
transform'd me to a curtal dog ;" and P. P. 273 : " My curtal dog that 
wont to have play'd," etc. 

103. Galli7?iaiifry. Medley, hotchpotch ; used again in W. T. iv. 4. 
335. Steevens says that " Pistol ludicrously uses it for a woman ;" but 
it is rather for women in general. Falstaff, he says, loves the whole med- 
ley of them, high and low^ rich and poor ^ etc. 

Perpend. Consider; a word used only by Pistol, Polonius, and the 
clowns. Cf. A. Y. L. iii. 2. 69, T. N. v. i. 307, IIa?n. ii. 2. 105, etc. 

105. With liver, etc. For the liver as the seat of love, cf. Temp. iv. I. 
56, Mtich Adoy iv. I. 233 (see our ed. p. 157), etc. 

106. Actceon. Cf. iii. 2. 36 below. Ringivood is the name of a dog. 
III. Cuckoo-birds do sing. The note of the cuckoo was supposed to 

prognosticate cuckoldom, from the similarity in sound oi cuckoo and cuck- 
old. Cf. Z. L. L. V. 2. 908 : 

*'The cuckoo then on every tree 
Mocks married men," etc. 

See also M. N. £>. iii. i. 134 and A. W. i. 3. d*]. 

113. Believe it. Page, etc. Johnson thought this should be given to 
Nym ; but Steevens explains the old text thus : " While Pistol is inform- 
ing Ford of Falstaff 's design upon his wife, Nym is talking aside to Page, 
and giving information of the like plot against him. When Pistol has 
finished, he calls out to Nym to come away ; but seeing that he and Page 
are still in close debate, he goes off alone, first assuring Page that he 
may depend on the truth of Nym's story." 

122. A7id there V the humour of it. Not in the folios, but supplied by 
Capell from the quarto. 

127. Drawling, affecti7tg. The words are hyphened in the ist folio. 
Affecting =2&^z\^A\ as in i^. ^;/^ y. ii. 4. 29 : " affecting fantasticoes." It 
is not an instance of the active participle used passively (Gr. 372), for it 
is really affected that is used peculiarly. An affected person is one who is 
given to affecting or affectation. 

129. A Catalan. A " heathen Chinee ;" from Cataia, or Cathay, the 
name given to China by early travellers. Cf. T. N. ii. 3. 80, where it is 
similarly used as a term of reproach. See our ed. p. 137. 

160. Lie at the Garter. That is, lodge or reside there. Cf. ii. 2. 56 be- 
low. See also 2 Hen. IV. p. 185. 

162. Voyage. Cf. Cymb. i. 4. 170: **if you make your voyage upon 
her," etc. 

174. Cavalero-justice. Cf. ii. 3. 65 below: "Cavalero Slender;" and 2 
He7i. IV. v. 3. 62 : '* all the cavaleros about London." The spelling in 
the early eds. is Cavaleiro, Cavalerio, etc. It is, of course, a corruption 
of the Spanish caballero, cavalier. 

176. Good even afid twenty. A free-and-easy salutation = ** good even- 
ing, and twenty of 'em !" Cf. Eliot, Fruits for the French, 1593 (quoted 



144 NOTES, 

by Halliwell) : " Good night and a thousand to every body." Peele, ac- 
cording to the same authority, has " farewell and a thousand." See also 
T. N'. ii. 3. 52 : " svveet-and-tvventy ;" and the note in our ed. p. 136. Mr. 
P. A. Daniel points out that "good even'''' is a slip on Shallow's part, as 
the time of the scene is evidently in the morning. Cf. 141 above, it be- 
ing remembered that the dinner hour in the time of S. was at noon. See 
M.for M. p. 144, note on Eleven^ sir. 

186. Contrary places. That is, different places for meeting ; as the se- 
quel shows. 

191. Pottle. A large tankard ; originally a measure of two quarts. Cf. 
iii. 5. 24 below. 

193. Brook. The reading of the quartos; the folios have, as else- 
where, " Broome." That the former is right is evident from ii. 2. 133 
below. 

196. Mynheers. The early eds. have "An-heires" or "An-heirs;" 
corrected by Theo. Other emendations are " on, here," " on, hearts," 
"on, heroes," " cavaleires," etc. " On, hearts " is favoured, perhaps, by 
iii. 2. 75 below. 

197. Have with you. I am with you, or I '11 go with you ; a common 
idiom. Cf. 206 and iii. 2. 79 below. 

201. Yon. stand 071 distance^ yonr passes^ stoccadoes^ etc. In the time of S. 
duelling had been reduced to a science, and its laws laid down with great 
precision. Cf. R. and J. ii. 4. 20 : " He fights as you sing prick-song, 
keeps time, distance, and proportion ; rests me his minim rest, one, two, 
and the third in your bosom : the very butcher of a siHc button, a duellist, 
a duellist ; a gentleman of the very first house, of the first and second 
cause," etc. Cf. Touchstone's ridicule of the causes of quarrel, etc., in 
A, V. L. V. 4. 63 fol. ; and see our ed. p. 198. The sioccado was a thrust 
in fencing. It is the same as the stoccata of R. and y. iii. i. 77 (see our 
ed. p. 181), the stock of ii. 3. 23 below, and the stuck of T. N. iii. 4. 303 
and Ham. iv. 7. 162. 

204. Made you. The you is doubtless the dativus ethicus or colloquial 
expletive pronoun ; as in i. 3. 50 above. Gr. 220. For tall ( = stout), see 
on i. 4. 22 above. 

Johnson remarks here : " Before the introduction of rapiers the swords 
in use were of an enormous length, and sometimes raised with both 
hands. Shallow, with an old man's vanity, censures the innovation by 
which lighter weapons were introduced, tells what he could once have 
done with the long sword^ and ridicules the terms and rules of the ra- 
pier." The 1st quarto reads here ; 

"I 
Have seene the day, with my two hand sword 
I would a made you foure tall Fencers 
Scipped like Rattes.'' 

208. Stands so firmly on his wife''s frailty. Theo. changed frailty 
to " fealty," and the Coll. MS. has " fidelity ;" but Ford uses frailty be- 
cause he has no confidence in Mistress Page's fidelity. The mean- 
ing, as Malone puts it, is "has such perfect confidence in his unchaste 

wife." 



ACT 11. SCENE 11. 



145 



211. Made there. Did there. Cf. iv. 2. 44 below: *' But what make 
you here ?" The idiom was a common one, and is played upon in L. L. 
L. iv. 3. 190 and Rich. III. i. 3, 164 fol. 

Scene II. — 3. Which /, etc. After this line Theo. added from the 
quarto, " I will retort the sum in equipage." 

5. Grated upon. Worried, vexed ; as in 2 Hen. IV. iv. i. 90 : ** sub- 
orn'd to grate on you." For the transitive grate in the same sense, see 
Ham. p. 216. 

6. Coach 'felloiv. Companion; commonly explained as="a horse 
drawing in the same carriage with another" (Schmidt). Theo. reads 
" couch-fellow." 

8. Geminy. Couple, pair (Latin gemini). 

10. The handle of her fan. As Steevens notes, fans were then more 
costly than now, being made of ostrich feathers, set into handles of gold, 
silver, ivory, etc. He quotes, among other references to these, Mars- 
ton, Satires y 1578 : 

"And buy a hoode and silver-handled fan 
With fortie pound." 

11. I took V Upon mine honour. I protested by mine honour. Cf. K» 
John, i. I. no : 

" And took it on his death 
That this my mother's son was none of his ;" 

and see our ed. p. 134. 

16. A short knife and a throng. That is, for cutting purses in a crowd. 
Purses, it will be remembered, were usually hung to the girdle. Malone 
quotes Overbury, Characters : " The eye of this wolf is as quick in his 
head as a cutpurse in a throng." Pope reads " thong." 

17. Pickt-hatch. A cant name for a district of bad repute in London. 
Steevens quotes several references to it from B. J. and other writers of 
the time. He suggests also a plausible origin for the term. A hatch (see 
K. John^ p. 136) was a half-door (that is, with the lower half arranged to 
shut, leaving the upper half open like a window), and this was sometimes 
protected by picks, or spikes, to prevent thieves and marauders from 
"leaping the hatch " {Lear, iii. 6. 76), Cf. Cupid's Whirligig, 1607: " Set 
some picks upon your hatch, and, I pray, profess to keep a bawdy- 
house." 

22. Lurch. Explained by Schmidt and others as = " lurk." The only 
other instance of the word in S. is in Cor. ii. 2. 105 : " He lurch'd all 
swords of the garland" (that is, robbed them of the prize). Cotgrave has 
" Fortraire. To lurch, purloyne ;" and Coles {^Lat, Diet.) renders lurch 
by "subduco, surripio." 

23. Cat-a-mountain. The folio has " Cat-a-Mountaine-lookes." Cf. 
Temp. iv. i. 262 : " Than pard or cat o' mountain " (" Cat o' Mountaine " 
in the folio) ; the only other mention of the beast in S. 

Red-lattice phi'ases. "Ale-house conversation" (Johnson). Cf. 2 Hen. 
IV. ii. 2. 86 : " through a red lattice ;" and see our ed. p. 164. 

24. Bold-beating. If this is not a misprint, it is= browbeating. Han- 

K 



146 



NOTES. 



mer's ''bull -baiting" is a plausible conjecture. Warb. reads "bold- 
beaiing," and Heath conjectures *' bold cheating." K., V., St., the Camb. 
ed., and Clarke retain bold-beatiitg. 

26. Would thou. The folio reading ; changed in most eds. to " wouldst 
thou." 

42. Well, one Mistress Ford, you say — . The folio reads "Well, on; 
Mistresse Ford, you say." The emendation, which is favoured by the 
preceding speech, is due to W., and is adopted by D. and H. 

47. God. The quarto reading ; changed to " Heaven " in the folio, on 
account of the statute of 1606 against the abuse of the name of God in 
plays, etc. Cf. 0th. p. 11. 

55. Canaries, Vt\\i?i'g^ — quandary, though S. does not use that word 
elsewhere. 

56. Lay at Windsor. '* That is, resided there " (Malone). See on ii. 
1. 160 above. 

59. Coach after coach. See p. 10 above. 

60. Rushling. Rustling. 

69. Pensioners. Gentlemen in the personal service of the sovereign. 
See M. N'. D. p. 137. 

79. Wot. Know; used only in the present tense and the participle 
wotting, for which see W. T. iii. 2. 77. 

82. Frampold. Quarrelsome. The word is a rare one, but Steevens 
cites examples of it from Nash, Middleton, B. and F., and others. 

93. Cha7'7jts. That is, love-charms, or magic influences. 

loi. Of all loves. For love's sake ; as in M. N. D. ii. 2. 154 : " Speak, 
of all loves !" See our ed. p. 154. In 0th. iii, i. 13, the ist quarto has 
" of all loves," the folios " for love's sake." 

105. Take all, pay all. This was a proverbial expression. 

III. Nay-word. Watchword; as in v. 2. 5 below. See also T. N. 

P- 139- 

120. Punk. Warb. reads "pink" — ''a vessel of the small craft, em- 
ployed as a carrier (and so called) for merchants;" but, as Steevens 
shows, punk was used in the same sense. 

121. Fights. A technical term for "cloths hung round the ship to 
conceal the men from the enemy" (Johnson). Steevens quotes The Fair 
Maid of the West, 1615 : 

"Then now up with your fights, and let your ensigns, 
Blest with St. George's cross, play with the winds." 

129. And hath sent your worship, etc. As Malone notes, it was a com- 
mon custom, in the poet's time, to send presents of wine from one room 
to another, either in token of friendship, or (as here) by way of introduc- 
tion to acquaintance. Cf. Merry Passages and Jeasts (Harl. MSS. 6395) : 
" Ben : Johnson was at a taverne, and in comes Bishoppe Corbett (but 
not so then) into the next roome. Ben : Johnson calls for a quart of 
raw wine, gives it to the tapster : Sirrha, says he, carry this to the gen- 
tleman in the next chamber, and tell him, I j-^^rifice my service to him ; 
the fellow did so, and in those words : Friend, sayes Dr. Corbett, I 
thanke him for his love ; but pr'ythee tell hym from me, hee 's mistaken, 



ACT II. SCENE IL j^j 

for j-^^mfices are allwayes hirnUy Corbet evidently preferred "burnt 
sack" (cf. H. I. 191 above), as Falstaff did. 

The morning's d^'aiight of ale, beer, wine, or spirits was a common 
thing in that day, as well as long before and after. It was not until tow- 
ards the end of the 17th century that the morning cup of coffee took its 
place. Halliwell cites many references to it ; as the following from Gra- 
ticB Ludefttes, 1638: "A Welch minister being to preach on a Sunday, 
certaine merry companions had got him into a celler to drink his morn- 
ings draught, and in the meane time stole his notes out of his pocket, 
Hee nothing doubting, went to the church into the pulpit, where having 
ended his prayer, he mist at last his notes, wherefore hee saide ; My good 
neighbours, I have lost my sermon, but I will reade you a chaptier in 
Job shall be worth two of it." 

136. Via. An interjection of encouragement or exultation ; from the 
Italian, and literally = away ! Cf. M. of V. ii. 2. 11 : "via! says the 
fiend ; away ! says the fiend," etc. Florio calls it " an adverb of encour- 
aging much used by commanders, as also by riders to their horses." 

141. Give us leave. A courteous phrase of dismissal. Cf. K. yoh7i^ i. 
I. 230 : "James Gurney, wilt thou give us leave awhile ?" See also R. 
and J. p. 150. 

147. Not to cha7'ge you. "That is, not wnth a purpose of putting you 
to expense, or being burthensome " (Johnson), 

150. Uiiseasojied. Unseasonable ; as in 2 Hen. IV. iii. i. 105 : "unsea- 
son'd hours." Cf Or. 375. 

154. All, or half. The Coll. MS. reads " half, or all." 

i6'8. Sith, Since. See Ham. p. 201, or Gr. 132. 

176. Engrossed opportunities. That is, taken every oj^portunity. 

179. What she would have given, Tbat is, what sort of presents she 
would like. 

183. Unless experience, etc. W. prints " except experience ;" perhaps 
an accidental variation from the folio. The Camb. ed. reads " a jewel 
that I have purchased," as the 4th folio does. The earlier folios have 
*' a jewel, that," etc. 

185. Love like a shadow, etc. As Malone remarks, this has the air of 
a quotation, but it has not been proved to be such. Steevens cites Flo- 
rio's translation of some Italian verses : 

"They weep to winne, and wonne they cause to die, 
Follow men flying, and men following fly;" 

and a sonnet by Queen Elizabeth : 

" My care is like my shaddowe in the sunne. 
Follows me fliinge, flies when I pursue it." 



Halliwell quotes from a song by B. J. : 



Follow a shaddow, it still flies you; 

Seeme to flye it, it will pursue : 
So court a mistris, shee denyes you ; 

Let her alone, shee will court you. 
Say are not women truely, then, 
Stil'd but the shaddowes of us men?'' 



148 



NOTES, 



199. Shrewd. Evil ; the original sense of the word. See Hen, VITT. 
p. 202, or J, C, p. 145. 

202. Of great admittance. Admitted to the society of great persons. 

203. Allowed. "Approved" (Malone). Cf. 2 Hen. IV. iv. 2. 54: "I 
like them all, and do allow them well." See our ed. p. 185. 

208. Amiable. Amorous, loving; as in Much Ado^ iii. 3. 161 : "this 
amiable encounter." 

218. With any detection in my hand. That is, with any evidence that I 
had detected her in unchastity. 

2i(^. Instance. " Example " (Johnson). 

220. Ward. A technical term in fencing for posture of defence. Cf. 
Temp, i. 2. 471 : " Come from your ward;" I Hen. IV. ii. 4. 215: "my 
old ward," etc. 

221. Other her defences, Cf. Lear, i. 4. 259 : " other your new pranks," 
etc. 

222. Too-ioo. Cf. M. of V. ii. 6. 42 : " too-too light ;" and see our ed. 
p. 143. See also quotation in note on iii. 3. 35 below. Rowe reads 
"too." 

241. Wittolly. Equivalent to cuckoldly just above. Cf. 264 below, 
where wittol-cztckold—^'' one who knows his wife's falsehood, and is con- 
tented with it " (Malone). See also Wb. s. v. 

246. Mechanical. Vulgar ; like a mere labourer. Cf. 2 He7t. VI. i. 3. 
196 : " Base dunghill villain and mechanical !" See also J, C. p. 125. It 
may be a question whether salt-butter is = dealing in salt butter, or a 
mere huckster (as Schmidt makes it), or z= poor and mean as salt butter. 
English people nowadays consider that only unsalted butter is fit for the 
table, and wonder that Yankees generally find it insipid.. 

249. Predominate, An astrological term ; \\\it predominant, for which 
see W, T. p. 157, or Macb. p. 203 (note on Is V nighfs predominance, 
etc.). 

251. Aggravate his style. Add to his titles (by making him a cuckold). 
Style is used in the heraldic sense. Steevens quotes Heywood, Golden 
Age, 161 1 : " I will create lords of a greater style." 

253. Soon at night. See on i. 4. 7 above. 

262. Amaimon and Barbason were devils, as the context shows. Regi- 
nald Scot, Harsnet (cf Lear^ p. 12), and other writers of the time give us 
as long lists of these " several devils' names " as Glendower bored Hot- 
spur with (i Hen. IV. iii. i. 154). Randle Holme, in his Academy of 
A7'mourie (quoted by Steevens), says that " Amaymon is the chief whose 
dominion is on the north part of the infernal gulph," and that " Barbatos 
is like a Sagittarius, and hath 30 legions under him." 

263. Additions. Titles. See Macb, p. 164, or Lear,^, 171. 

264. Wittol- cuckold. The folios have " Wittoll, Cuckold," and some 
modern editors follow them. Malone was the first to insert the hyphen. 
See on 241 above. 

268. Aqua-vitce. Ardent spirits ; here probably — whiskey. Reed 
says that Dericke, in The Image of Ireland, 1581, mentions uskebeaghe (or 
usquebaugh, the same word as the modern whiskey), and in a note ex- 
plains it to mean aqua-vitce. 



ACT II. SCENE III i^g 

273. Eleven o'clock the hour. " It was necessary for the plot that he 
should mistake the hour, and come too late " (Mason). 

Scene III. — 21. Foin. Thrust; a fencing term. See Much Ado, 
p. 163. Traverse elsewhere (see 2 Hen. IV, p. 179) is^march ; and here 
it may mean "baffle by shifting place" (Clarke). Schmidt thinks it is 
=fo2n. Punio (Italian =point), stock (see on ii. i. 201 above), reverse, 
and montant (Italian montanto^ for which see Much Ado, p. 118) were all 
technicalities of the fencing-school. 

25. Heart of elder. " In contradistinction to * heart of oak,' elder- 
wood having nothing but soft pith at heart " (Clarke). 

-26. Bully stale. The word stale — xiuw^ ; as in A. and C. \. 4. 62 : " the 
stale of horses." This, like Urinal just below, is a hit at the practice of 
examining the patient's water then in vogue. Cf. 2 He7t. IV. i. 2. i : 
" What says the doctor to my water ?" and see our ed. p. 152. 

29. Castilian, The folios have " Castalion," and the quartos " Cas- 
tallian." It may be, as Farmer suggests, "a slur upon the Spaniards, 
who were held in great contempt after the business of the Armada." 
There is perhaps also "an allusion to his profession, as a water- <:<7j/^r" 
(Malone). To cast the water was the technical term for inspecting it 
Cf. Mack v. 3. 50 : 

"If thou couldst, doctor, cast 
The water of my land, find her disease," etc. 

35. The hair. The grain, the nature. Cf. i Hen. IV. iv. I. 61 : 

"The quality and hair of our attempt 
Brooks no division;" 

and see our ed. p. 187. 

39. Bodykins. A form of swearing by God's body, or the sacramental 
bread. Cf. Ham. ii. 2. 554 : " God's bodykins, man, much better !" Cf. 
also ''od^s heartlings in iii. 4. 56 below, ^od^s nouns in iv. i. 21, etc. 

41. Make one. That is, one of the combatants. 

48. Churchman. Ecclesiastic ; as in T N. iii. i. 4, Rich. III. iii. 7. 48, 
etc. 

50. Mockwater. Perhaps another hit at the urinary diagnosis. Malone 
reads " Muckwater " (the conjecture of Farmer). 

77. Cried game ? Changed by Theo. to " Try'd game," by Hanmer to 
" Cock o' the game," by Warb. to " Cry aim," by D. to " Cried I aim ?" 
(Donee's conjecture), and in the Coll. MS. to "Curds and cream." Dr. 
Ingleby {Shakes. He7'meneutics, p. 75) remarks : " There can hardly be a 
doubt that under the words Cried gain e, if authentic, there lurks an allu- 
sion of the time which has now to be hunted out. If cried game? be 
either Is it cried game ? or Cried I game ? we apprehend the allusion is 
not far to seek. In hare-hunting, a person was employed and paid to 
find the hare, * muzing on her meaze,' or, as we say, in her form. He 
was called the hare-finder. When he had found her, he first cried Soho ! 
to betray the fact to the pursuers ; he then proceeded to put her up, and 
*give her courser's law.' What, then, can Cried I game ? mean but Did 
I cry game? Did I cry Soho? In the play before us the pursuit was 



ISO 



NOTES. 



after Mistress Anne Page. She was the hare, and the host undertook to 
betray her whereabouts to Dr. Caius in order that he might urge his 
love-suit." 



ACT III. 

Scene I. — 4. Pitty-ward. In the direction of the//V/y, probably a local 
name in that day, though now lost. Capell reads " city-ward," and the 
Coll. MS. has "pit way." Halliwell thinks it means "towards the Petty 
or Little Park," as distinguished from the Park. 

12. Costard. Properly a kind of apple (whence costerinonger^ or cos- 
tard-mo7iger) ; then, in cant language, the head, as being round like an 
apple. Cf. L. L. L. iii. i. 71, Lear, iv. 6. 247, etc. 

14. To shallozv rivers, etc. This is from a poem, which William Jag- 
gard, when he brought out The Passionate Pilgrim in 1599, included as 
one of Shakespeare's productions ; but in 1600 it was attributed to its 
real author, Christopher Marlowe, in the collection of poems entitled 
England's Helicon. Jaggard was perhaps misled by the quotation from 
the poem here. If so, it tends to prove that the play was written before 
the publication of The Passionate Pilgri??i (Stokes). The poem is famil- 
iar, but some of our readers may be glad to see it reprinted here : 

"THE PASSIONATE SHEPHERD TO HIS LOVE. 

*' Come live with me, and be my love, 
And we will all the pleasures 'prove 
That hills and valleys, dale and field, 
And all the craggy mountains yield. 
There will we sit upon the rocks, 
And see the shepherds feed their flocks. 
By shallow rivers, by whose falls 
Melodious birds sing madrigals : 
There will I make thee beds of roses. 
With a thousand fragrant posies, 
A cap of flowei-s, and a kirtle 
Embroider'd all with leaves of myrtle ; 
A gown made of the finest wool, 
Which from our pretty lambs we pull : 
P'air lined slippers for the cold, 
With buckles of the purest gold ; 
A belt of straw, and ivv buds. 
With coral clasps, and amber studs : 
And if these pleasures may thee move, 
Come live with me, and be my love. 
Thy silver dishes for thy meat, 
As precious as the gods do eat, 
Shall on an ivory table be 
Prepared each day for thee and me. 
The shepherd swains shall dance and sing. 
For thy delight each May morning; 
If these delights thy mind may move, 
Then live with me, and be my love." 

In Jaggard's compilation, the poem was accompanied by an answer 
signed "Ignoto." Walton, in his Complcaf Angler, has inserted both. 



ACT III. SCENE I. 



151 



describing the first as " that smooth song which was made by Kit Mar- 
lowe," and the other as "an answer to it by Sir Walter Raleigh in his 
younger days." We add this also as " old fashioned poetry, but choicely 
good:" 

"THE nymph's reply TO THE SHEPHERD. 

*' If that the world and love were young, 
And truth in every shepherd's tongue, 
These pretty pleasures might me move . 
To live with thee, and be thy love. 
But time drives flocks from field to fold, 
When rivers rage, and rocks grow cold, 
And Philomel becometh dumb, 
And all complain of cares to come : 
The flowers do fade, and wanton fields 
To wayward winter reckoning yields. 
A honey tongue, a heart of gall, 
Is fancy's spring, but sorrow's fall. 
Thy gowns, thy shoes, thy beds of rose?, 
Thy cap, thy kirtle, and ihy posies. 
Soon break, soon wither, soon forgotten. 
In folly ripe, in reason rotten. 
Thy belt of straw, and ivy buds, 
Thy coral clasps, and amber studs, — 
All these in me no means can move 
To come to thee, and be thy love. 
What should we talk of dainties then. 
Of better meat than 's fit for men? 
These are but vain : that 's only good 
Which God hath bless'd and sent for food. 
But could youth last, and love still breed, 
Had joys no date, and age no need, 
Then these delights my mind might move 
To live with thee, and be thy love." 

2T. Whenas I sat i7i Pabylon. This line- is from the old version of the 
137th Psalm : 

" When we did sit in Babj'lon, 
The rivers round about. 
Then, in remembrance of Sion, 
The tears for grief burst out." 

For 7£//^^;/<7j = when, see C. of E. p. 142. 

22. Vagrant. Ci. Much Ado, \\\. '^.26: "all vagrom men." Johnson 
changes the word to "vagrant." Schmidt omits vagrain in his Lex- 
icon. 

41. Doublet and hose. Equivalent to the modern " coat and breeches." 
See ^. KZ. p. 158. 

51. So wide of his owjt respect. " So indifferent to his own reputation " 
(Halliwell). 

78. For missing . . . appointments. Not in the folios ; supplied by 
Pope from the ist quarto. 

86. Gallia. Here = Wales (Fr. Galles, ox pays des Galles). 

93. Give me thy hand, terrestrial ; so. These words are also from the 
quarto ; first inserted in the text by Theo. 

loi. Sot. Fool (Fr. sot). See Temp. p. 132. 

103. Vlonting-stog. Flouting-stock, laughing-stock. 



152 



NOTES, 



105. Scall. Evans's word for j"^«/d?(=scabby, scurvy). Cf. A. and C. 
V. 2. 215 : " scald rhymers," etc. 

106. Cogging. Cheating. Cf. iii. 3. 39, 59 below. See also Muck Ado, 
p. 164. 

Scene II. — 15. The dickens. The one instance of the expression in S. 
It is rare in writers of the time. Heywood, in his Edw. JV. i6co, has 
" What, the dickens !" 

28. Twelve score. That is, yards ; as in i Hen. IV* ii. 4. 598 and 2 
He7i. IV. iii. 2. 52. As this is so short a distance for a cannon, H. sug- 
gests that 7'ods may be understood ; but Ford means to make it a very 
easy shot, which for the guns of that day might not be more that 720 feet. 
At any rate, 53^ times that distance, or nearly a mile, would be too much 
for 2. point-blank shot. The point-blank range of an Armstrong gun now 
is only from 330 to 400 yards. 

35. So-seefning. Referring to modesty; not = "so specious," as Stee- 
vens makes it. 

37. Cry aim. Encourage; "an expression borrowed from archery = 
to encourage the archers by crying out aim when they were about to 
shoot, and then in a general sense to applaud, to encourage with cheers " 
(Schmidt). Cf. K. John, ii. i. 196; and see also on ii. 3. 77 above. 

39. Search; there. The Coll. MS. reads "search where." 

49. Lingered. Been waiting. 

58. Speaks holiday. That is, his best, his choicest language. Warb. 
thought it to be = "in a high-flown, fustian style;" but the host means 
simply holiday style as distinguished from every-day style, or that of 
common people. Steevens compares i Hen. IV. i. 3. 46 : " With many 
holiday and lady terms." Cf. also " high-day wit" in M. of V. ii. 9. 98, 
and "festival terms" in Ahich Ado, v. 2. 41. 

60. ^Tis in his buttons. A free-and-easy expression='t is in him to do 
it, he can do it if he will. The late President Garfield said that he never 
met a ragged boy without feeling that he owed him a salute for the pos- 
sibilities "buttoned up under his coat." Some of the editors of the last 
century see an allusion to "a custom among the country fellows, of try- 
ing whether they should succeed with their mistresses, by carrying the 
bachelor''s buttons (a plant of the Lychnis kind, whose flowers resemble 
a coat button in form) in their pockets." Steevens cites many con- 
temporaneous references to these bachelor''s buttons. Cf. Wb. s. v. 

62. Having. Possessions, property. Cf ^. KZ. p. 178. 

He kept co7npany with the wild prince, etc. This has been quoted as 
evidence that Hetiry IV. was written before M. W. 

64. Knit a knot in his fortunes, ^^i?^ fortunes being now somewhat 
" at loose ends " on account of his loose ways. 

77. Pipe-wine. There is a play w^ovi pipe in its double sense of a cask 
and a musical instrument. It is suggested by canary, which meant a 
lively dance as well as a kind of wine. Cf. A. W. ii. i. 77 : 

"make you dance canary 
With spritely fire and motion." 

Here Falstaif is to dance to Ford's piping. 



ACT in. SCENE III. 



153 



Scene III. — 2. Buck-basket. A basket for carrying clothes to the 
bucktjtg (113 below), or washing. 

II. Whitsters, Whiteners or bleachers (Fr. blanchissettses) of linen. 
The reader will bear in mind that -ster was originally a feminine ending, 
though it retains that force only in spiiister. 

.18. Eyas-musket. Young sparrow-hawk, i^j^'^i- is properly a nestling 
hawk (see Ham. p. 207), and musket (for the derivation, see Wb. s. v.) is 
the young male hawk. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 11. 34: 

"Like Eyas hauke up mounts unto the skies, 
His newly-budded pineons to assay ;" 

and Hy?nne of Heavenly Love: '*Ere flitting Time could wag his eyas 
wings." \z2L2ik. Walton, in his enumeration of hawks, mentions " the 
sparhawk and the musket " as the old and young birds of the same 
species. 

22. Jack-a-Lent. A small puppet thrown at during Lent. Steevens 
quotes Greener's Tu Quoque : "if a boy, that is throwing at his Jack 
o' Lent, chance to hit me on the shins," etc. 

33. Ptimpion. Pumpkin ; the modern name being a corruption of the 
old one. See Wb. 

34. Tu?'tles. Turtle-doves. See on ii. i. 71 above. Jay was a meta- 
phor for a harlot. Cf. Cymb. iii. 4. 51 : 

'* Some jay of Italy, 
Whose mother was her painting, hath betray'd him.'* 

Warb. notes that the Italian /z///^ (=jay) is used in the same figurative 
sense. 

35. Have I caught thee, e^tc. The beginning of the second song in Sid- 
ney's Ast7'ophel and Stella is 

" Have I caught my heav'nly Jewell, 
Teaching sleepe most faire to be? 
Now will I teach her that she 
When she wakes, is too-too cruell.'* 

39. Cog. Cheat, dissemble. See on iii. i, 106 above. 

47. Beauty. The Var. of 1821 has "bent," the quarto reading. Ma- 
lone quotes A. and C. i. 3. 36 : " Bliss in our brows' bent." The Camb. 
ed, does not note this reading. 

Ship-tire and tire-valiant are forms of the tire, or head-dress, of the 
time. Cf. Mtich Ado, p. 148, note on Tire. Of VeJtetian adtnittance — 
admitted or approved as the fashion in Venice. Cf. T.of S.\\. 1.308, 
where Petruchio says he is going to Venice " To buy apparel 'gainst the 
wedding-day ;" and see note in our ed. p. 146. Halliwell quotes Mer- 
chant Royall, 1607 : "if wee weare any thing, it must be pure Venetian, 
Roman, or barbarian ; but the fashion of all must be French." 

51. Traitor. "That is, to thy own merit" (Steevens). The reading 
is that of the quartos ; the folios have " tyrant," and omit By the Lord. 
See on ii. 2. 47 above. 

^2. Absolute. Perfect. Cf. i^^z?^. v. 2. Ill : "an absolute gentleman ;" 
and see also Hen. K p. 170. 



154 NOTES, 

54. Farthingale. Hooped petticoat. Cf. T. G. of V. ii. 7. 51.: " What 
compass will you wear your farthingale ?" In T. of S. iv. 3. 56, the spell- 
ing is fardingale. 

If Fortune thy foe were not. Evidently an allusion to a popular old 
song beginning " Fortune, my foe, why dost thou frown on me ?" Nature 
thy frie7id~^2X\xx^ being thy friend. Capell reads: *^thy foe were not; 
Nature is thy friend." The first folio points thus: *' I see what thou 
wert if Fortune thy foe, were not Nature thy friend." 

59. A niany. Now obsolete, though we say a few and many a. Cf. M. 
of V. iii. 5. 73, Rich. III. iii. 7. 184, etc. Tennyson uses the expression 
in The Miller's Daughter : "They have not shed a many tears." Gr. 

61. Bjuklersbury. A street in London (on the right of Cheapside, 
as one goes towards the Bank) which in the poet's time was chiefly in- 
habited by druggists, who sold all kinds of simples^ gr herbs, green as 
well as dry. The cut on p. 129 (from Knight's Pictorial Shakspere) is 
made up from materials furnished by Aggas's Map of London^ 1578- 

66. The Cotmter-gate. The Countered. C. of E."^. 136) was the name 
of two prisons in London. 

77. The ai'ras. The tapestry hangings of the room. Steevens re- 
marks : " The spaces left between the walls and the wooden frames on 
which arras was hung, were not more commodious to our ancestors than 
to the authors of their ancient dramatic pieces. Borachio in Much Ado 
and Polonius in Hajnlet 3\?,o avail themselves of this convenient recess." 

85. To your husband. See Gr. 189. 

106. I had rather than a thousand pound. Cf. i. I. 178 above : " I had 
rather than forty shillings," etc. Had rather is good old English of 
which would rather is merely a "modern improvement." Cf. ^. Y. L. 
p. 139, note on Had as lief'' 

114. Whiting-tifue. Bleaching-time. This, as Holt White notes, was 
spring, the season when " maidens bleach their summer smocks " (L. L. L. 
V. 2.916). 

123. I love thee. Malone adds (from the quarto) "and none but thee," 
which he assumes to be spoken to Mrs. Page aside. 

128. Coivl-staff. A pole on which a tub or basket was borne between 
two persons. Malone says that in Essex a large tub is called a cowl^ and 
Halliwell {Archaic Diet.) gives coul^\\\v that sense. Florio has ^^ Bicollo, 
a cowle-staffe to carie behind and before with, as they use in Italy to 
carie two buckets at once;" and Cotgrave defines courge as "a stang, 
palestaffe, or colestaffe, carried on the shoulder, and notched (for the 
hanging of a pale, &c.) at both ends." 

Drujnble = \no\Q sluggishly, "dawdle ;" still used in the West of Eng- 
land. 

136. You were best meddle. Cf A. Y. L. i. i. 154: "thou wert best 
look to it," etc. See Gr. 230, 352, and cf 190. 

137. Wash myself of the buck. That is, rid myself of the horns of the 
cuckold. 

138. Of the season. In season ; a technical term. Cf. unseasonable in 
R. of L, 581. See also M.for M. p. 145. 



ACT III. SCENE IV. 155 

140. To-night. Last night; as often. Cf. M. of V. ii. 5. 18: "For I 
did dream of money-bags to-night," etc. 

144. Uncape. Probably = " uncouple,"' which Hanmer substituted. 
Warb. explains it as — " unearth," and Steevens as — "to turn the fox out 
of the bag." 

158. What was in the basket. The folios have " who " for what. The 
emendation was suggested by Ritson. 

162. Strain. See on ii. i. 78 above. 

169. Foolish carrion. The ist folio has " foolishion Carion ;" apparent- 
ly an example of that variety of "duplicative" misprints, as Dr. Ingleby 
calls them {Shakes. Hermeneiitics^ p. 36), in which the ending of the next 
word is anticipated in the one we are writing or putting in type.* 

177. You tise me well, etc. Theo. inserted before this " Ay, ay, peace " 
(from the quarto), which is spoken aside to Mrs. Page. 

Scene IV. — Mr. P. A. Daniel remarks: "The time of this scene is 
singularly elastic. It is prior to, concurrent with, and subsequent to the 
preceding scene : prior to in the interview between Fenton and Anne ; 
cojicurrent with in the arrival of ^Shallow and Slender, who left the com- 
pany in sc. ii. to come here, while the rest of the company went on to 
Ford's house ; subsequent to in the return home of Page and his wife 
from the dinner at Ford's house, with which sc. ii. is supposed to end. 
And Mrs. Quickly? In modern editions Mrs. Quickly arrives on the 
scene with Shallow and Slender ; but there is no authority for this or any 
other of the entries in this scene in the folio. The scene — and so it is 
with all the scenes throughout the play — is merely headed with a list of 
the actors who appear in it : the special time at which they enter is not 
marked." 

8. Societies. Cf. companies in Hen. V. i. i. 55 : " His companies unlet- 
tered, rude, and shallow." 

10. A property. Cf J. C. iv. I. 40 : 

"Do not talk of him, 
But as a property." 

16. Stamps. Coins; as in Cymb. v. 4. 24: " 'Tween man and man 
they weigh not every stamp," etc. 

20. Opportunity. That is, taking advantage of the opportune time for 
appealing to him. Hanmer reads "importunity." 

24. / '// make a shaft or a bolt of it. " A proverbial phrase, signifying 
* I'll do it either cleverly or clumsily,' ' hit or miss,' the shaft being a sharp 
arrow used by skilful archers, the bolt a blunt one employed merely to 
shoot birds with" (Clarke). Cf Much Ado, p. 119, note on Bird-bolt. 

''Slid is = God's lid ; an oath of the same class as we have noted on ii. 3. 
39 above. 

46. Come cut and long-tail. "A proverbial expression — ' whatever 
kind may come;' cut and long-tail referring to dogs and horses with 

* Like "excellence sense" for "excellent sense," a misprint in Dr. Ingleby's vS". the 
Man and the Book, Part II. fp. 31) wliich, on our pointing it out to him, he called "a 
capital example" of this class of mistakes. 



156 



NOTES. 



docked or undocked tails. The characteristic way in which this bump- 
kin squire interlards his speech with illustrations borrowed from the stud 
and the kennel, from country sports and pursuits, is worth observing " 
(Clarke). 

56. ^OlVs heartlings. See on ii. 3. 39 above. 

62. Happy man be his dole! Happiness be his lot ! Cf. T. of S.\. i. 
144, I Hell. IV. ii. 2. 81, etc. For dole (literally=rdealing, distribution), 
cf. 2 IIe7t. IV. i. I. 169: "in the dole of blows;" and A. W. ii. 3. 76: 
"what dole of honour." The word is still a familiar one in England 
for a charitable allowance of provision to the poor. 

69. Impatie7it. Metrically a quadrisyllable. Gr. 479. 

79. Advaiice the colours of 7?iy love. For the metaphor, Cf. R. and J. v. 
3. 96: "And death's pale flag is not advanced there." 

84. Qjiick. Alive ; as in Hun. v. i. 137 : " 't is for the dead, and not 
the quick," etc. See also Acts^ x. 42, 2 Tim. iv. i, Heb. iv. 12, etc. 

On the passage, Collins compares B. J., Barthol. Fair : " Would I had 
been set in the ground, all but the head of me, and had my brains bowled 
at." 

94. A fool and a physician. Hanmer changes and to "or;" but, as 
Clarke notes, it is just in Mrs. Quickly's blundering way to couple the 
two suitors by and instead oi or. 

96. Once to-night. Some time to-night. Cf. 2 Hen. IV. p. 201. 

107. Slack, Neglect ; as in Lear^ ii. 4. 248 and 0th. iv. 3. 88. 

Scene V. — There is a strange confusion of time in this scene, which 
Mr. P. A. Daniel states thus : " We find Falstaff calling for sack to qual- 
ify the cold water he had swallowed when slighted into the river from 
the buck-basket. One would naturally suppose that the time of this 
scene must be the afternoon of the day of that adventure, and, indeed, it 
can be but a little later than the time of the preceding scene ; but lo ! 
when Mrs. Quickly enters with the invitation for 'to-morrow, eight 
o'clock,' she gives his worship good 7?iorrow [=good morning] ; tells 
him that Ford goes this rnorni7tg a-birding, and that Mrs. Ford desires 
him to come to her once more, between eight a7td 7ii7ie. As Mrs. Quickly 
departs, Falstaff remarks, 'I marvel I hear not of Master Brook ; lie sent 
me word to stay within : I like his money well. O, here he comes.' 
And Ford (as Brook), who was to have visited Falstaff ' soon at night' 
after the adventure which ended with the buck-basket, makes his appear- 
ance to learn the result of the first interview, and to be told of the sec- 
ond, which is just about to take place. * Her husband,' says Falstaff, ' is 
tJiis 771 or 7ii ng gowQ a-birding: I have received from her another embassy 
of meeting ; 'twixt eight and nine is the hour, Master Brook.' ' ^T is past 
eight already, ^\\\'' says Ford; and Falstaff replies, 'Is it.'* I will then 
address me to my appointment,' and so he goes out, and Ford follows, 
confident this time of taking him in his house." 

8. Slighted 7ne. "Threw me heedlessly" (Schmidt). 

9. A bli7id bitch'' s puppies. Hanmer made it read " a bitch's blind pup- 
pies ;" but the mistake may be intentional, as being in keeping with Fal- 
staff's state of mind at the time. 



ACT HI. SCENE V. 



^57 



22. Cry you mercy. Beg your pardon ; as in Much Ado, i. 2. 26, etc. In 
Oth. V. I. 93 we find "I cry you gentle pardon." 

24. Chalices. Cups; those in which the wine ordered in 3 above had 
been served (Clarke). 

¥ or pottle (see on ii. i. 191) W. reads "posset;" but brew may be used 
jocosely. Simple of itself ?>ttu\^ to imply that he wanted plain sack — un- 
less, perchance, possets were sometimes made without eggs. All the old 
recipes that we happen to have seen include the pidlet-sperm. The fol- 
lowing, for instance, is quoted by St. from A True Genii ewoma^i^ s De- 
light: "To Make a Sack-Posset. — Take Two Quarts of pure good 
Cream, and a Quarter of a Pound of the best Almonds. Stamp them in 
the Cream and boyl, with Amber 2^^^ Musk therein. Then take a Pint 
of Sack in a basin, and set it on a Chafing-dish, till it be blood-warm ; 
then take the Yolks of Twelve Eggs, with Four of their Whites, and beat 
them well together ; and so put the Eggs into the Sack. Then stir all to- 
gether over the coals, till it is all as thick as you would have it. If you 
now take some Amber and Musk, and grind the same quite small, with 
sugar, and strew this on the top of your Possit, I promise you that it shall 
have a most delicate and pleasant taste." Another receipt, given by the 
same editor, allows " eggs just ten " to a pint of sack, with the other " in- 
grediencies." 

38. Yearn your heart. Cf. Rich. II. v. 5. 76: " O, how it yearn'd my 
heart," etc. Cf. J. C. p. 153, note on The heart of Brutus yearns to think 
upon. 

60. Sped you, sir? Had you good luck ? Were you successful ? Cf. 
W. 7:p. 161. 

63. Peaking Cor nuto. Sneaking cuckold. Y ox peak, cf. Ham. ii. 2. 594 ; 

"Yet I, 
A dull and muddy-mettled rascal, peak, 
Like John-a-dreams, unpregnant of my cause." 

Comuto is evidently formed from the Latin cornu, horn. Halliwell quotes 
Witts Recreatioits : "Cornuto is not jealous of his wife ;" and Gallantry 
a la Mode, 1674: " When my cornuto goes from home." 

64. Larum. Alarum (but not that word contracted), or alarm. 

75. Distraction. Changed by Hanmer to " direction ;" but Falstaff 
ascribes the trick to Mrs. Page's invention at a time when Mrs. Ford was 
in a state of helpless distraction. Theo. changes /;/ to "by." 

80. That. So that. Gr. 283. 

94. Several. Separate ; as in v. 5. 60 below. Cf. Temp. iii. 1. 42 ; and 
see our ed. p. 131. 

95. With. By ; as often. Gr. 193. 

96. Bilbo. Spanish blade. See on i. i. 145 above. It was said that the 
best of these blades could be bent so as to bring hilt and point together 
without breaking. 

107. /;/ good sadness. In all seriousness ; as in iv. 2. 79 below. For 
^•£7^— serious, see Much Ado, p. 121. 

116. Address me to. Prepare myself for. Cf. Macb. ii. 2. 24, Ham, i. 
2. 216, etc. * 

132. Hor7t-mad. See on i. 4. 43 above. 



158 



NOTES. 



ACT IV. 



Scene I.— 9. Ts let. The Coll. MS. reads "is yet." It is not a bad 
joke that one should attempt to correct Sir Hugh's English. 

21. ^OcVs noims. A petty oath. See on ii. 3. 39 above. Mrs. Quickly 
confounds V^ and ode/. 

40. J7i7ic. Changed by Halliwell to " hunc ;" but the next speech 
seems to imply that William has made a mistake. There the folios have 
*'hing" for ////;/cr (Pope's correction), but we are not to suppose that the 
pedagogue would blunder in declining a familiar pronoun. Perhaps we 
should point " Hinc, — " It is possible, of course, that it ought to be 
*' Hunc," the mistake being in his inability to give the other two forms. 

43. Hang- hog is Latin for bacojt. K. remarks: "This joke is in all 
probability derived from the traditionary anecdote of Sir Nicholas Bacon, 
which is told by Lord Bacon in his Apophthegms : ' Sir Nicholas Bacon 
being judge of the Northern Circuit, when he came to pass sentence 
upon the malefactors, was by one of them mightily importuned to save his 
life. When nothing he had said would avail, he at length desired his 
mercy on account of kindred. Prithee, said my lord, how came that in.? 
Why if it please you, my lord, your name is Bacon and mine is Hog^ and 
in all ages Hog and Bacon are so near kindred that they are not to be 
separated. Ay but, replied the judge, you and I cannot be of kindred 
unless you be hanged ; for Hog rs not Bacon till it be well hang'd.'" 

69. Preeches. That is, breeched^ or flogged. Cf. T. of S. iii. i. 18: "I 
am no breeching scholar in the schools ;" and see our ed. p. 148. 

73. Sprag. Sprack ; that is, quick, ready. Coles, in his Latin Diet., 
has ''''Sprack, vegetus, vividus, agilis." Steevens quotes Tony Aston's 
supplement to the Life of Co/ley Gibber: "a little lively sprack man." 
According to the etymologists, spree and spiy are forms of the same 
word. Cf. Wb. 

Scene II. — i. Your sorrow, etc. " My sufferings are dissipated at the 
sight of your regret" (Halliwell). For stcff'e7'ance — s\x^Qxmg,ci.Mtick 
Ado^ p. 162. 

2. Obsequious. Zealous, devoted. 

17. Liines. Lunatic freaks, mad fancies. Cf W. Z*. ii. 2. 30 : "These 
dangerous unsafe lunes i' the king, beshrew them !" In the present pas- 
sage the folios have "lines" (corrected by Theo.), as in T. a?td C ii. 3. 
139: " His pettish lunes." Cf. Ham. p. 232, note on Lunacies. 

21. Peer out, peer 07it I Henley remarks : " S. here refers to the prac- 
tice of children, when they call on a snail to push forth his horns : 

' Peer out, peer out, peer out of your hole, 
Or else I '11 beat you black as a coal."' 

38. Bestow him. Put him. Cf Te?np. v. I. 299 : " Hence, and bestow 
your luggage where you found it," etc. 

43. Pistols. Douce and others note the anachronism here. Cf. i He7t. 
IV. p. 169. See also C. of E. p. to6. 

48. Creep iiito the kiln-hole, Malone suspected from Mrs. Ford's next 



ACT IV. SCENE II. 



159 



Speech that these words belong to Mrs. Page ; but, as he adds, " that 
may be a second thought, a correction of her former proposaL" D. and 
H. transfer the sentence to Mrs. Page. 

51. Abstract. Memorandum. 

SS-Ify^^ S^ ^^^A etc. The folios give this to Mrs. Ford ; corrected by 
Malone from the quarto. 

66. Thriimtned hat. That is, a hat made of thrtwzs, or the ends of a 
weaver's warp. Cf. M. N. D. p. 186, note on Thread and thrinn. Hal- 
Hwell quotes Elyot, Z>/V/. 1559: *' Bardo cucuUus, a thrummed hatte ;" 
Florio, 1598: "Bernasso, a thrumbed hat;" and Minsheu : "A thrum- 
med hat, une cappe de biar." 

69. Look. Look up, look for. See A. Y. L. p. 161. Gr. 200. 

88. Misuse him. The ist folio omits him^ which the 2d supplies. 

93. Still swine, etc. Halliwell quotes Yates, Castell of Conrtesie, 1582 : 
"a proverbe olde in Englande here, the still sowe eats the draffe." 

loi. Villains. The folio has "villaine;" corrected by D. 

103. Gijig. Gang, pack ; used by S. only here. The ist folio has 
"gin," the 2d ging. Steevens cites examples of the word from B. J., 
New Inn and Alchemist, and from Milton, Smectymnus. 

107. Passes. See on i. i. 268 above. 

130. Plnck 7ne, etc. For the me, see on i. 3. 50, and ii. i. 204 above. 

136. This wro7igs you. *' This is below your character, unworthy of 
your understanding, injurious to your honour" (Johnson). 

142. Show 710 coloitr, etc. Suggest no excuse for my extravagance, do 
not attempt to palliate it. 

144. Leman. Lover, paramour. In the other instances of the word in 
S. (Z*. N, ii. 3. 26 and 2 He7i. IV. v. 3. 49) it is feminine. 

155. Danbery. Imposture, trickery; literally dazibing \mih. false col- 
ours. Cf. the use of datcb in Rich. III. iii. 5. 29 and Lear, iv. i. 53. By 
the figitre apparently refers to some form of fortune-telling in which dia- 
grams were used. 

159. Not strike. The ist folio omits 7iot. 

162. Hag. The reading of the 3d folio ; the earlier ones have " ragge " 
and " rag," which some would retain. 

Ronyo7t. A scabby or mangy woman. See Wb. The word occurs 
again in Macb. i. 3. 6 : " rump-fed ronyon." 

173. Cry out thus 7ip07i ito trail. "The expression is taken from the 
hunters. Ti'ail is the scent left by the passage of the game ; to cry out 
is to ope7t or bark " (Johnson). Cf. Ha7n. iv. 5. 109 : 



How cheerfully on the false trail they cry! 
O, this is counter, you false Danish dogs ! " 



186. I7t fee-simple, with fi7ie a7id recovery. Ritson remarks : "Our au- 
thor had been long enough in an attorney's office to learn \\\?i\:fee-si7?iple 
is the largest estate, and f7te a7id recovery the stro7tgest assnra7ice, known 
to English law." For fee- simple, cL A. /^ iv. 3. 312 : " Sir, for a quart 
d'ecu he will sell the fee-simple of his salvation," etc. Forf7ie a7id re- 
covery, cf. Ham. V. i. 114: "his fines, his double vouchers, his recov- 
eries," etc. 



i6o NOTES, 

187. He will never, I think, etc. *' He will not make further attempts 
to ruin us, by corrupting our virtue, and destroying our reputation " (Stee- 
vens). 

192. Figures. Fancies. Schmidt compares J. C, ii. 1. 231 : 

"Thou hast no figures nor no fantasies, 
Which busy care draws in the brains of inen." 

196. No period. "No due conclusion" (Clarke). W. puts a period 
afteryVj/, making what follows a question. 

Scene III.— i. The Germans. Some of the commentators see here 
an allusion to the visit of Count Frederick of Mompelgard (afterwards 
Duke of Wiirtemberg and Teck) to Windsor in 1592, and to the fact that 
free post-horses were granted him through a pass of Lord Howard's. 
See also on iv. 5. 67 below. 

7. Call them. The ist folio has "call him" (not mentioned in the 
Camb. ed.) ; " corrected in the 3d folio " (Malone). 

10. Come off. " Come down with the cash," pay for it. Steevens and 
Farmer quote many examples of the expression from Massinger, Dekker, 
Heywood, B. J., and other dramatists of the time. It occurs also in 
Chaucer, C. T. 338. Theo. reads "compt off," and Capell "not come 
off." 

Scene IV. — 7. With cold. Of coldness. For the zvith, see Gr. 194. 
The folios have " with gold ;" corrected by Rowe. 

11. Extreme. S. accents the word on either syllable; on the first 
chiefly when preceding the noun. Cf. R. of L. 230, T. G. of V. ii. 7. 22, 
L. L. L. V. 2. 750, etc. Submission is a quadrisyllable. The early eds. 
print II and 12 as one line. 

31. Takes. Bewitches. Cf. JIam.i. i. 16^: '' No fairy takes, nor witch 
hath power to harm ;" and see our ed. p. 177. 

34. Spirit. Monosyllabic {—sprite) ; as often. See on i. 4. 21 above, 

35. Eld. Here apparently =people of the olden time. 

42. Disguis''d like Heme, etc. This line is not in the folios ; supplied 
by Theo. from the ist quarto. He also inserted the preceding line of the 
quarto, " We '11 send him word to meet us in the field ;" but, as Malone 
notes, this is clearly unnecessary, and indeed improper, 2<.^ field relates to 
what goes before in the quarto : 

" Now for that Yalstaffe hath bene so deceiued, 
As that he dares not venture to the house, 
Weele send him word to meet vs in the field, 
Disguised like Home, with huge horns on his head." 

The last line is required by in this shape in the next speech. 

49. Urchins. Mischievous elves ; probably so called because they 
sometimes took the form of urchins, or hedgehogs. Cf Temp. i. 2. 326 
with Id. ii. 2. 10. Ouphes were a kind of elves. 

54. Diffused. Confused, wild, irregular. Cf Hen. V. p. 185. 

57. To-pinch. The editors generally adopt Tyrwhitt's suggestion that 
to here is the intensive particle often found prefixed to verbs in old Eng- 



ACT IV. SCENE V, l6l 

lish, but nearly obsolete in the time of S. Steevens quotes Holland's 
Pliny : '*shee againe to be quit with them, will all to-pinch and nip both 
the fox and her cubs." The all is often thus associated with it, and in 
some cases the to is to be joined to the all ( = altogether), rather than to 
the verb. In Judges, ix. 53, we find "«// to brake," which some make 
= " all to-brake," and others = *' all -to brake." In the present passage, it 
is possible that the to is the ordinary infinitive prefix, used with the sec- 
ond of two verbs, though omitted with the first. See Gr. 350, and cf. 28. 

69. Vizards. Visors, or masks. Cf. vizarded in iv. 6. 40 below. 

73. Time. Changed by Theo. to " tire " and by W. to " trim ;" but, as 
Warb. remarks, that time may refer to *' the time of the masque with 
which Falstaff is to be entertained, and which makes the whole subject 
of this dialogue." 

77. Properties. In the theatrical sense of stage requisites. Cf. M. N, 
D. i. 2. 108 ; " I will draw a bill of properties such as our play wants." 
Tricki7tg=^ dresses, ornaments. 

Scene v.— I. Thick-skin. Cf. M. N. D. iii. 2. 13: "The shallowest 
thick-skin of that barren sort." 

5. Standing-bed and truckle-bed. The trnckle-bed or trnndle-bed (as it 
is still called in New England) was a low bed which could be put under 
the standiitg-bed, or ordinary bedstead. The master lay in the latter, and 
the servant in the former. Johnson quotes Hall's Servile Tutor: 

" He lieth in the truckle-bed, 
While his young master lieth o'er his head:" 

and Steevens adds The Return f7'07n Parnassus: *'When I lay in a 
trundle-bed under my tutor." The ist quarto has "trundle bed" here. 

6. Painted about, etc. The hangings of beds, as of rooms, were often 
painted or embroidered with Scripture stories. Cf. i Hen. IV. iv. 2. 28 : 
"ragged as Lazarus in the painted cloth;" and Randolph, Muse's Look- 
ing- Glass, iii. I : 

"Then for the painting, I bethink myself 
That I have seen in Mother Redcap's hall, 
In painted cloth, the story of the Prodigal." 

8. Anthropophaginian. Man-eater, cannibal. "The Host enlarges 
even his usual style of grandiloquence to astound and overawe Simple" 
(Clarke). We find Anthropophagi in 0th. i. 3. 144. 

14. Ephesian. A cant term of the time — "jolly companion " (Schmidt). 

21. Wise woman. Fortune-teller, or witch. Cf. 103 below. Hey- 
wood's Wise Woman of Hogs den has such a character for its heroine. 
Cf. T.N. iii. 4. 114: "Carry his water to the wise woman." Steevens 
refers to Judges, v. 29. 

23. Mussel-shell. " He calls poor Simple 7nussel-shell because he 
stands with his mouth open" (Johnson). 

26. Thorough. Used interchangeably with through, even in prose. 
See on throughly, i. 4. 80 above. 

37, 38. Conceal. Farmer would "correct" this into "reveal." The 
Host repeats the blunder for the joke of the thing. 

L 



1 62 NOTES, 

The folios give Simple's speech in 37 to '■'' Fal. ;" corrected by Rowe. 
The Coll. MS. assigns it to Falstaff, but changes / to " You." 

47. LikewJio mo7'e bold. That is, like the boldest. Some editors adopt 
Farmer's conjecture of "Ay, sir Tike, who," etc. The ist quarto has 
"/tike, who more bolde." 

50. Clerkly. Scholarly, learned; the only instance of the word in S. 
Cf. clerklike in W. T. i. 2. 392. 

54. But was paid, etc. For the play on /^/^ (—punished), cf Cymb. v. 
4. 166 : "sorry you have paid too much, and sorry that you are paid too 
much." 

60. Slough. Stokes thinks the word should be printed with a capital, 
as including " a local allusion as well as a pun " {Slough is the name of a 
town near Windsor) ; but this is doubtful. 

61. .Doctor FaiLstuses. As Steevens remarks, Marlowe's play on the 
subject had already rnade the name familiar. 

67. Cozejt-gcj'mans. The blundering play on coiisin-german is obvi- 
ous. The 1st quarto reads : 

" For there Is three sorts of cosen garmombles, 
Is cosen all the. Host of Maidenhead and Readings.^^ 

The "garmombles" seems to be an intentional inversion oi Mmnpelgard. 
See on iv. 3. i above. This reference to the visit of the Germans has led 
some critics to date the first draft of the play in 1592 ; but, as Dowden 
remarks, the inference is unwarrantable, "for such an event would be re- 
membered, and the more so because of the Duke's subsequent unavailing 
attempt [in 1595] to obtain the honour of the Garter." 

86. Liqtwr fishermen'' s boots, Cf. i Hen. IV. ii. i. 94, and see onr ed. 
p. 158. Halliwell quotes Walk Knaves JValk, i6^g: "They are people 
who will not put on a boot which is not as well liquored as themselves." 

88. As a dried pear. " Pears, when they are dried, become flat, and 
lose the erect and oblong form that distinguishes them from apples" 
(Steevens). 

89. Primero. The fashionable game at cards in the poet's time. Cf. 
Hen. VII/.Y. I. 7, and see our ed. p. 197. 

90. To say my prayers. Not in the folio; inserted by Pope from ist 
quarto. 

94. His dam. See on i. 1. 134 above. 

Scene Vr. — 14. Larded. Garnished, or mingled. Pope reads " where- 
of 's " for whereof. 

17. Scene. The ist quarto has "scare;" and "share" has been pro- 
posed. Capell reads "scene in it." 

20. Present. Represent, play the part of. See M. N. D. p. 156. 

21. Is here. " That is, in the letter" (Steevens). 

22. While other jests, etc. " While they are hotly pursuing other mer- 
riment of their own" (Steevens). 

27. Ever stro7ig. The early eds. have "even "for ever ; corrected by 
Pope. Steevens explains " even strong" as — " as strong, with a familiar 
degree of strength.'* 



ACT V. SCENES /., //., ///., AND V. 163 

39. Denote. The folios have "d'euote ;" corrected by Capfell (the con- 
jecture of Steevens). 

41. Quai7tt. Fme, elegant. Cf. its use of feminine dress in T.ofS. iv. 
3. 102 and Much Ado, iii. 4. 22. 

52. Husband your device. That is, carry it out. Cf. T. of S. ind. I. 68 : 

*' It will be pastime passing excellent, 
If it be husbanded with modesty." 



ACT V. 

Scene I. — i. / '// hold. I '11 keep the engagement. Palsgrave has: 
" I holde it, as we say when we make a bargen,y> le tie7ts.^^ 

3. There 's divinity in odd numbers. Steevens quotes Virgil, Eel. viii. 
75 : *' numero deus impare gaudet." 

8. Mince. To walk with small steps or affectedly. Cf. M. of V, iii. 

4-67: 

**and turn two mincing steps 
Into a manly stride." 

12. Went you not, etc. Mr. P. A. Daniel remarks: "The plot, as we 
have seen [see on iii. 5. i above] is hopelessly entangled already, but 
Ford now puts the finishing touch to it. Referring to the second meet- 
ing, which took place on the morning of the very day on which he is 
speaking, he asks Falstaff, ' Went you not to \i^x yesterday, sir, as you told 
me you had appointed ?' and Falstaff is not surprised, but gives him an 
account of the cudgelling he had received, as Mother Prat, on the morn- 
ing of the day on which the question is asked." 

21. Life is a shuttle. Falstaff has in mind Job, vii. 6. 

22. Plucked geese. Pulling the feathers from a live goose was then a 
boyish piece of mischief 

Scene II. — 2. My daughter. The ist folio omits datighter. 

5. Nay-word, See on ii. 2. 11 1 above. 

6. Mum . . . budget. Halliwell quotes, among other illustrations of the 
combination, Cotgrave, Fr. Diet. : " Avoir le bee gele, to play mumbudget, 
to be tongue-tyed, to say never a word;" and Ulysses upon Ajax, 1596 : 
" Mum budget, not a word." 

Scene III. — 12. Hugh. The folios have " Heme ;" corrected by Cap- 
ell. Theo. reads " Evans " (the conjecture of Thirlby). 

Scene V. — 16. Scut. Strictly = the tail of a hare or rabbit, but some- 
times applied as here to that of other animals. 

17. Green sleeves. See on ii. i. 56 above. 

18. Kissing-comfits. Sugar-plums used to sw^eeten the breath. 
Eringoes. The plant known as the "sea-holly ;" popularly supposed 

to have aphrodisiac properties ; ^s potatoes also were, on their first intro- 
duction into England in 1586. 



1 64 NOTES. 

21. Bribed buck. Halliwell says that bribed =^\.o\en. He quotes Pals- 
grave : " I bribe, I pull, I pyll " (spillage, as in Rich. III. i. 3. 159, etc.). 
Theo. reads "bribe," and explains it (as Schmidt does bribed) as = sent 
as a bribe or present. Sr. says : " A bribed buck was a buck cut up to 
be given away in portions. Bribes in old French were portions or frag- 
ments of meat which were given away." 

22. The fellow of this walk. The keeper of this division of the forest. 
The shoulders of the deer were a part of his perquisites. Holinshed 
(quoted by Steevens) says : " The keeper by a custom . . . hath the skin, 
head, umbles, chine, and shoulders." 

24. Woodman. A hunter; often used in a wanton sense. Qi.M.for 
M. iv. 3. 170 : "he is a better woodman than thou takest him for;" and 
see our ed. p. 166. 

34. The stage-direction in the folio is simply " ^«^<fr T^cz/r/Vj- ;" but 
" Qui.''^ and " ^//." are prefixed to the speeches of the Fairy Queen 
that follow, and ^^ Fist.'''' to those of Hobgoblin. From this it has been 
assumed by some of the editors that Mistress Quickly and Pistol are 
the persons who take these parts. But, as Malone remarks, they are ill 
suited to the parts, and are not mentioned in the arrangements for the 
masque in iv. 6 above. It is probable that their names were introduced 
here by some mistake. The " ^///."may be a slip for Qu.^Queen, not 
Quickly ; and ^^ Pist.''^ may be accounted for, either by supposing, as Cap- 
ell did, that the same actor who represented Pistol took also the rSle of 
Hobgoblin, or that, as Mr. Fleay believes {Literary World, June 19, 1880, 
p. 216), '''' Pist.''^ is a mistaken reading o{ P. or Puc. for Puck. It may be 
noted, incidentally, that " Puc.'''' and " Qu.'''' sometimes occur as prefixes 
to speeches by Hobgoblin and Titania in the M. AL D. In the quarto 
the stage-direction has " Enter . . . mistresse Quickly, like the Queene of 
Fayi'ies,'" and the prefix to her speeches is " Quic.'''' or " Quick.'''' In the 
revision of the, play this scene was entirely rewritten and much extend- 
ed ; and the part of the fairy queen was transferred from Mrs. Quickly 
to Anne Page, who in the earlier sketch was to be merely " like a little 
Fayrie." 

W. takes the ground that the part assigned to Anne in iv. 6 was trans- 
ferred to Mrs. Quickly in carrying out the plot of Fenton and Anne to 
deceive the old folks. He says : " the determination of Page and Mrs. 
Page that their daughter should play the fairy queen is exactly the rea- 
son why she did not play it ; for, as she assures her lover in her letter, 
she meant to deceive both, and she did so. She, Fenton, and Mrs. 
Quickly arranged that matter easily ; and she neither wore green or 
white, nor played the fairy queen." The Camb. editors also suggest that 
Mrs. Quickly " may have agreed to take Anne's part to facilitate her es- 
cape with Fenton ;" but this seems to us less probable than that a prefix 
in the folio was misprinted. 

36. Orphan heirs of fixed destiny. Many of the editors follow Theo. 
in reading " ouphen-heirs." Clarke explains the old text thus : " Beings 
created orphans by fate ; in allusion to supposed spontaneous and ex- 
natural births, such as Merlin's, and others of his stamp, holding place in 
popular superstition, who were believed to have been born without fa« 



ACT V. SCENE V. 



165 



ther." Cf. 2 He7i. IV. iv. 4. 122: "Unfather'd heirs, and loathly births 
of nature;" and see our ed. p. 191. Warb. asks "Why orphan heirs? 
Destiny, to whom they succeeded, was in being." W. replies: "The 
fairies, however, were not Destiny's heirs or children, but the inheritors 
of a fixed destiny. Freed from human vicissitudes and deprived of hu- 
man aspirations, a fixed destiny was the estate to which they were heirs, 
not the being to whom they succeeded." Either this explanation or 
Clarke's (which is perhaps to be preferred, on account of the parallel pas- 
sage in 2 Hen. IV.) amply justifies the retention of the folio reading. 

37. Quality, Profession; as in HeJt, V. iii. 6. 146; "What is thy 
name } I know thv quality," etc. 

38. Hobgoblin, the Fnck of the M. N. D. Cf. that play, ii. I. 40 : 
" Those that Hobgoblin call you or sweet Puck," etc. See our ed. p. 140. 

Oyes — oyez (hear), the beginning of the crier's proclamation, used at the 
opening of courts, etc. 

39. Toys. Trifles. Cf. M. N.D. p. 179. 

40. Shalt thoii leap. The Coll. MS. reads "when thou'st leapt," and 
Sr. "having leapt." H. adopts Walker's suggestion of " unswep " in the 
next line, a purely conjectural form ; but, as W. remarks, the imperfec- 
tion in the rhyme is too slight to justify a mutilation of the authentic text. 

41. Unrak'd. That is, not properly raked up, or put in order for the 
night. 

42. Bilberry. The whordeberry. 

43. On the fairy hatred of slnttery, cf. M. N. D.\. I. 396 : 

" I am sent with broom before 
To sweep the dust behind the door" 

(that is, where the careless maids neglect to sweep) ; and see the long 
note in our ed. p. 188. Cf also Browne, Brit. Pastorals : 

"where oft the fairy queen 
At twilight sat and did command her elves 
To pinch those maids that had not swept their shelves ;" 

Herrick, Hesperides : 

" If ye will with Mab finde grace, 
Set each platter in its place ; 
Rake the fire up and fet 
Water in ere sun be set, 
Wash your pales and cleanse your dairies ; 
Sluts are loathsome to the fairies : 
Sweep your house ; who doth not so, 
. Mab will pinch her by the toe ;" 

and Bishop Corbet's Farewell to the Fairies : # 

" Farewell, rewards and fairies, 

Good housewives now may say ; 
For now fowle sluts in dairies 

Do fare as well as they : 
And though they sweepe their hearths no lesse 

Than maides were wont to doe. 
Yet who of late for cleanlinesse 

Findes sixpence in her shooe?'' 



1 66 NOTES, 

In a poem in Poole's English Parnassus^ Mab is spoken of as 

** She that pinches country wenches, 
If they rub not clean their benches ; 
And with sharper nails remembers, 
When they rake not up the embers;" 

and in a song in the same volume we find these stanzas : 

"And if the house be foul, 
Or platter, <iish, or bowl. 
Up stairs we nimbly creep, 
And find the sluts asleep ; 
Then we pinch their arms and thighs, 
None escapes, nor none espies. 

But if the house be swept, 
And from uncleanness kept, 
We praise the household maid, 
And surely she is paid ; 
For we do use before we go 
To drop a tester in her shoe." 

These illustrations might easily be multiplied. 

45. Wink. Shut my eyes ; a common meaning in S. See 2 Hen. IV, 
p. 157. 

46. Bede. The folio spelhng. The ist quarto has " Pead," and Theo. 
reads " Bead ;" but the indication of Sir Hugh's Welsh brogue is dropped 
in this fairy episode. It was, however, intended to be kept up on the 
stage, as is evident from 78 below, where Falstaff recognizes him as "a 
Welsh fairy." 

48. Raise np the organs of her fantasy. Warb. assumes that this must 
mean " inflame her imagination with sensual ideas," and therefore changes 
Raise to " Rein ;" but, as Steevens says, the meaning may be " elevate 
her ideas above sensuality, exalt them to the noblest contemplation." 
Malone paraphrases the passage thus : " Go you, and wherever you find 
a maid asleep that hath thrice prayed to the Deity, though^ in consequence 
of her innocence, she sleep as soundly as an infant, elevate her fancy, and 
amuse her tranquil mind with some delightful vision." Clarke also ex- 
plains the passage as — •' exalt her imagination by pleasant dreams." H., 
on the other hand, says that ^''fantasy here stands iox sensual desire, the 
* sinful fantasy' reproved afterwards in the fairies' song;" and W. takes 
the same ground. We cannot see v^\\.'^ fantasy should h^ — sinfnl fan- 
tasy, when it has no such sense elsewhere in S. ; nor why the imagination 
of a maid, and one who has thrice said her prayers before falling asleep, 
should be supposed to play such wicked tricks with her. 

56. In state, etc. Hanmer reads "site as," and Walker conjectures 
" seat as ;" anci Theo. in the next line adopts Warburton's conjecture of 
"as" for and. 

59. With juice of balm, etc. It was an old custom to rub tables, chairs, 
etc., with aromatic herbs. Pliny says that the Romans did the same, to 
drive away evil spirits (Steevens). 

60. Several. Separate. See on iii. 5. 94 above. 

64. Expressiire. Expression, or impression. Cf, T. and C. iii. 3. 204, 
and T.N. ii. 3- 171. 



ACT V, SCENE V, 



167 



70. Charadery. Writing; as in y.Cii. 1.308: "All the cbaractery 
of my sad brows." Cf. also character in M.forM, iv, 2. 208, Ham. iv. 7, 
53, etc For the accent, cf. Gr. 490. 

T]. Middle-earth. *' Spirits are supposed to inhabit the ethereal regions, 
and fairies to dwell underground ; men therefore are in a middle station " 
(Johnson), Early English writers often use viiddle-earth in this sense. 

'^. Overlook' d. Bewitched by the "evil eye." <Zi. M.of V,m.2. \^\ 

" Beshrew 5'our eyes, 
They have o'erlook'd me and divided me." 

81. With trial-Ji7'e, etc. Steevens quotes B. and F,, Faithful Shep- 
herdess : 

" In this flame his finger thrust. 
Which will bum him if he lust ; 
But if not, away will turn, 
As loth unspotted flesh to burn." 

83. Tiirn him to no pain. Cf, Temp, i, 2. 64 : " To think o' the teen 
that I have turn'd you to;" Cor. iii. I. 284: "The which shall turn you 
to no further harm," etc. 

89. After this speech Theo, inserts from the quarto: '■^ Evans. It is 
right, indeed, he is full of lecheries and iniquity." 

91. Lnxnyy. Lasciviousness ; the only sense in S. Cf Hen. V. p. 166. 

92. A bloody fire. " The fire i' the blood " ( Temp. iv. i. 53). 

IOC,- Watch' d yon. Caught you by lying in wait for you. Cf. 2 Hen. 
VI. i. 4. 45 : " Beldam, I think we watch'd you at an inch " (cf 58 just 
below), 

102. Hold np the jest. Qi.M.N.D. iii. 2.239: "hold the sweet jest 
up," etc. 

104. These fair yokes. The 1st folio has "yoakes,"the 2d " okes ;" 
and some modern eds. read "oaks." Yokes, if it be what S. wrote, may 
allude to the branching antlers on Falstaff 's head, which bore some re- 
semblance to the projections on the top of ox-yokes. Halliwell says that 
the allusion is " unquestionably" to the horns "fastened with a substan- 
tial bandage, passing over the head and tied under the chin." According 
to the other reading, the antlers are compared to the branches of oaks. 
W. reads "fairy oaks." 

122. fack-a-Lent. See on iii. 3. 22 above. 

132. A coxcomb of f'ize. A fool's cap of frize, a woollen fabric for 
which Wales w^as famous. Y ox frize ^ cf. 6>///. p. 173; and for the cox- 
comb, see Lear, p. 186. 




1 68 NOTES. 

144. Hodge-pudding. Probably a pudding somewhat like a hodge- 
podge, or hotch-potch. The word has not been found elsewhere. The 
Coll. MS. has "hog-pudding," and Pope (according to D.) '*hog's-pud- 
ding ;" neither being noted in the Camb. ed. 

154. Flaimel. " The very word is derived from a Welch one [cf. Wb.], 
so that it is almost unnecessary to add \\i2X flannel was originally the 
manufacture of Wales " (Steevens). 

155. IgJiorance itself is a plnmniet over me. "I am so enfeebled that 
ignorance itself w^eighs me down and oppresses me" (Johnson) ; "igno- 
rance itself is not so low as I am, by the length of a plummet line " (Tyr- 
whitt) ; " ignorance itself points out my deviations from rectitude " (Hen- 
ley and W.) ; " ignorance itself can sound the depths of my shallowness 
in this " (Clarke and Schmidt). St. quotes Shirley, Love in a Maze, iv. 
2 : " What, art melancholy? What hath hung plummets on thy nimble 
soul ?" The only other instances of the word pln77imet in S. are Te??ip, 
iii. 3. loi and v. i. 56, which favour Clarke's explanation. Johnson con- 
jectured "has a plume o' me" ( = " plucks me, and decks itself with the 
spoils of my weakness "), and Farmer "is a planet o'er me." 

159. Affliction. After this speech, Theo. inserts the following from the 

quaito: ''Mrs. Ford. Nay, husband let that go to make amends; 

Forgive that sum, and so we '11 all be friends. 
Ford. Well, here 's my hand; all 's forgiven at last.'' 

161. A posset. See on i. 4. 7 and iii. 5.24 above. Clarke remarks: 
"There is something especially pordial in the introduction of this pro- 
posal from the good-natured yeoman. Master Page ; it serves to keep 
the jest upon Falstaff within the range of comedy-banter, and to show 
that he is included in the general reconciliation which closes the play." 

174. Swiiiged. Whipped. Cf. K. John, p. 146. 

183. White. The folios have "green ;" corrected by Pope. 

185. Fostf?iaste7''s boy. Steevens inserts here from the quarto ; 

^^ Evans. Jeshu! Master Slender, cannot you see but marry boys? 
Pa^e. O, I am vex'd at heart! What shall I do?" 

187. Green, Here, as in 192 below, the folios have " white ;" corrected 
by Pope. 

203. Amaze, Bewilder, confuse. Cf. K, John, iv. 3. 140 : " I am 
amaz'd, methinks, and lose my way," etc. 

210. UndiiteoHs title. " Title of unduteousness" (Smibert). The Coll. 
MS. changes title to "guile," and D. to "wile." 

211. Evitate, Avoid ; used by S. only here. 

217. Stand. The station or hiding-place of a huntsman waiting for 
game. Cf. Cymb. iii. 4. iii : 

"Why hast thou gone so far. 
To be unbent when thou hast ta'en thy stand, 
The elected deer before thee?" 

See also Id. ii. 3. 75, L. L. L. iv. i. 10, and 3 Hen. VI. iii. i. 3. Some of 
the editors appear to suppose that sta^ids were only for the use of lady 
hunters, but it is evident from some of thes^ passages that this is a mis- 
take. 



ADDENDUM, 169 

221. All sorts of deer are chas*d. "Young and old, does as well as 
bucks. He alludes to Fenton's having just run down Anne Page" (Ma- 
lone). " Falstaff here takes a final chuckle over those who have defeated 
his pursuit of the dear merry wives, by showing them that their dear 
daughter has been caught by the man who was not their choice, but 
hers" (Clarke). 

Before this line Pope and Theo. insert from the quarto : *' Evans [aside 
to Fento7t\. I will dance and eat plums at your wedding." Johnson re- 
grets the omission of the following, which the quarto gives after 222: 

'''•Mi. For. Come mistris Page^ He be bold with you, 
Tis pitie to part loue that is so true. 

Mis. Pa. Altho that I haue missed in my intent, 
Yet / am glad my husbands match was crossed, 
Here M. Fenton^ take her, and God giue thee ioy. 

S/r Hu : Come M. Page, you must needs agree. 

Fo. I yfaith sir come, you see your wife is wel pleased : 

Fa. I cannot tel, and yet my hart's well eased, 
And yet it doth me good the Doctor missed. 
Come hither Fentou, and come hither daughter. 
Go too you might haue stai'd for my good will, 
But since your choise is made of one you loue, 
Here take her, YeJtton, & both happie proue. 

Sir Hu. I wil also dance & eate plums at your weddings.'* 

222. Muse. *' Foster my grudge" (Schmidt). 



ADDENDUM. 

The "Time- Analysis" of the Play. — As Mr. P. A. Daniel shows 
in his paper " On the Times or Durations of the Action of Shakspere's 
Plays" i^Trans. of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 124 fol.), it is impossible, 
as the play now stands, to make out any consistent time-division of it. 
The chief difficulty is in the confusion with reference to Falstaff 's meet- 
ings with Mrs. Ford, which he states as follows (cf. note on iii. 5. i 
above) : 

" The first meeting, which ends with the buck-basket, takes place be- 
tween ten and eleven on one morning ; the second meeting is determined 
for the morrow of the first, and actually follows it ; but yet the invitation 
to it and its actual occurrence are fixed by the Play at an earlier hour of 
the same day as that on which the first takes place ; and when it has 
thus got in advance of the first. Ford refers to the first as being before 
it. And the confusion does not end here, for on the very day of the sec- 
ond meeting Ford refers to that second meeting as having taken place on 
the * yesterday,' and thus the third meeting, which is on the night of the 
day of the second, is driven forward to the night of the day following 
it. . . . 

"The chief error, then, lies in sc. v. of Act TIL ; that scene must, I 
think, have been formed by the violent junction — I cannot call it fusion — 
of two separate scenes representing portions of two separate days. The 
first part of the scene — Mrs. Quickly and Falstaff— is inseparably con- 



lyo NOTES. 

nected with the day of Falstaff's first interview with Mrs. Ford.; the sec- 
ond part is as inseparably connected with the day of the second inter- 
view. The first part clearly shows us Falstaff in the afternoon, just 
escaped from his ducking in the Thames; the second part as clearly 
shows him in the early morning about to keep his second appointment 
with Mrs. Ford. 

"Cut this actual scene v. into two, ending the first with Mrs. Quickly's 
last speech — ' Peace be with you, sir,' — and the main difiiculty vanishes, 
and the only change required in the text of the Folio to make it agree with 
the previous scenes is the alteration of two words. In her first speech 
Mrs. Quickly says, ' Give your worship good morrow.' For morrozv read 
even. In lines 45-6 she says, ' Her husband goes this morning a-bird- 
ing.' For this moniiiig read /;/ the mo7'itingox to-morroiv morning. Not 
a syllable need be changed in the Ford part of the scene; but with this 
part we might begin Act IV. The confusion between Falstaff's first and 
second interviews with Mrs. Ford would be thus absolutely cured. 

" To complete our task and make the text of the play perfectly accord- 
ant with its plot we should further alter one word in Act V. sc. i. Ford 
there says, ' Went you not to her yesterday, sir T etc. Y ox yesterday read 
this morning.^'' 

Mr. Daniel believes that this error in iii. 5 never existed in the author's 
MS., but is "the result of some managerial attem^Dt to compress the two 
scenes into one for the convenience of the stage representation ;" and 
that the words which he proposes to alter were then introduced into the 
folio version in order to make the new scene self-consistent. 

Disentangling the 2d and 3d days of the action, as Mr. Daniel suggests, 
the "time-analysis" will stand as follows : 

"Day I. Act 1. sc. i. to iv. 

" 2. Act II. sc. i. to iii., Act III. sc. i. to iv., and the Quickly por- 
tion of sc. V. 
" ' 3. The Ford portion of Act III. sc. v. to end of the Play." 




INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES 
EXPLAINED. 



a many, 154. 

absolute (—perfect), 153. 

abstract, 159. 

Actaeon, 143. 

additions (^titles), 148. 

address me to, 157. 

affecting {=:affected), 143. 

aggravate his style, 148. 

allowed (=approved), 148. 

Amaimon, 148. 

amaze (^bewilder), 168. 

amiable (^amorous), 148. 

an (play upon), 141. 

angel (coin), 138. 

Anthropophaginian, 161. 

aqua-vitse, 148. 

are you avised o' that ? 140- 

armigero, 130. 

arras, 154. 

attends (=waits for), 135. 

avised (^advised), 133, 140. 

Banbury cheese, 132. 

Barbason, 148. 

Bede, 166. 

beholding (=zbeholden), 135. 

bestow him, 158. 

bilberry, 165. 

bilbo, 133, 156. 

blind bitch's puppies, 156. 

bloody fire, 167. 

boarded me, 142. 

bodykins, 149. 

bold-beating, 145. 

Book of Riddles, 134. 

Book of Songs and Sonnets, 

134. 
bottom (=ball of thread), 

135- 
breed-bate, 139. 
bribed buck, 164. 
Brook, 144. 
buck-basket, 153. 
Bucklersbury, 154. 
bully stale, 149. 
bully-rook, 136. 
burn daylight, 142. 
buttons, 't is in his, 152. 



Cain-coloured, 140. 

canaries, 146. 

canary, 152. 

carves, 137. 

Castilian, 149. 

Catalan, 143.^ 

cat-a-mountain, 145. 

cavalero-justice, 143. 

chalices, 157. 

charactery, 167. 

chariness, 142. 

charms (=love-charms), 146. 

cheater (=escheator), 138. 

churchman, 149. 

clerkly, 162. 

coach-fellow, 145. 

cock and pie, by, 136. 

cogging, 152, 153. 

come cut and long-tail, 155. 

come off. 160. 

compremises, 130. 

conclusions passed the ca- 
reers, 134. 

confidence ( ^conference ), 
141. 

contempt, 135. 

conversation (^behaviour), 
141. 

convey (osteal), 137. 

cony-catching, 132, 137. 

coram, 130. 

Cornuto, 157. 

costard, 150. 

Cotsall, 131. 

council, 130. 

counsel (play upon), 131. 

Counter-gate, 154. 

cowl-staff, 154. 

coxcomb of frize, 167. 

cozen-germans, 162. 

cried game? 149. 

cry aim, 152. 

cry you mercy, 157. 

cuckoo-birds, 143. 

curtal, 143. 

custalorum, 130. 

daubery, 159. 



detection in my hand, 148. 
detest (^protest), 141. 
devil's dam, 133. 
dickens, the, 152. 
diffused (==confused), 160. 
distance (in fencing), 144. 
distraction, 157. 
divinity in odd numbers, 

163. 
Doctor Faustuses, 162. 
dole, 156. 

doublet and hose, 151. 
doubt (= suspect), 140. 
drumble, 154. 

Edward shovel-boards, 133. 

eld, 160. 

engrossed opportunities, 

147. 
entertam, 136, 138. 
Ephesian, 161. 
eringoes, 163. 
evitate, 168. 
expressure, 166. 
extreme (accent), 160. 
eyas-musket, 153. 

fall (=::fault), 135. 

fallow (colour), 131. 

fap, 134. 

farthingale, 154. 

fault (=:misfortune), 131. 

fee-simple, 159. 

fellow of this walk, 164. 

fico, 137. 

fights (naval), 146. 

figures (—fancies), 160. 

fine and recovery, 159. 

flannel, 168. 

Flemish drunkard, 141. 

foin, 149. 

foolish carrion, 155. 

Fortune thy foe, 154. 

frampold, 146. 

French thrift, etc., 139. 

frize, 167. 

froth and lime, 136. 

fullams (dice), 139. 



172 



INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED, 



Gallia {= Wales), 151. 
gallimaufry, 143. 
geminy, 145. 

gi"g. 159- 

give us leave, 147. 

go to, 141. 

good even and twenty, 143. 

good-year, 140. 

gourds (dice), 139. 

grated upon, 145. 

great chamber, 133. 

Green Sleeves, 142. 

groat, 133. 

Guiana, 138. 

guts, 139, 142. 

had rather, 154. 

hair (=nature), 149. 

hang-hog is Latin, etc., 158. 

happy man be his dole! 
156. 

have with you, 144. 

having (^property), 152. 

haviour, 139. 

heart of elder, 149. 

Herod of Jewry, 141. 

high men (dice), 139. 

Hobgoblin, 165. 

hodge-pudding, 168. 

hold ( —keep an engage- 
ment), 163. 

hold up the jest, 167. 

honesty (—chastity), 142. 

horn-mad, 140, 157. 

humour, 133. 

Hungarian, 137. 

husband your device, 163. 

ignorance a plummet, 168. 
impatient (metre), 156. 
in good sadness, 157. 
in his buttons, 't is, 152. 
instance (^example), 148. 
intention (=aim), 138. 

Jack, 140. 

Jack-a-Lent, 153, 167. 
jay (zrharlot), 153. 

Keisar, 136. 
kibes, 137. 
kissing-comfits, 163. 
knights will hack, 142. 
knit a knot in his fortunes, 
152- 

labras, 133. 
larded, 162. 
larron, 140. 
larum, 157. 
latten, 133. 
leman, 159. 
lie (=lodge), 143, 146. 



liking (=bodily condition), 
142. 

lingered, 152. 

liquor boots, 162. 

liver (seat of love), 143. 

look (=look for), 159. 
j low men (dice), 139. 
' luces, 130. 

lunes, 158. 

lurch, 145. 

luxury, 167. 

made (=did), 145. 

make a shaft or a bolt of it, 

155- 

marrmg (play upon), 130. 

marry trap, 133. 

master offence, 135. 

meat and drink to me, 136. 

mechanical (=vulgar), 148. 

IMephostophilus, 132. 

Michaelmas, 135. 

middle-earth, 167. 

mill-sixpences, 133. 

mince, 163. 

minim's rest, at a, 137. 
I Mistress, 131. 
I Mockwater, 149. 
I montant, 1^19. 

morning's draught, 147. 
j mum budget, 163. 
1 muse, 169. 

mussel-shell, 161. 

mynheers, 144. 

nay- word, 146, 163. 
nut-hook, 134. 

obsequious, 158. 
'od's heartlings, 156. 
'od's nouns, 149, 158. 
ceillades, 138. 
o'erlooked, 167. 
of all loves, 146. 
of great admittance, 148. 
of the season, 154. 
old (intensive),. 1 39. 
once to-night, 156. 
open (=:bark), 159. 
opportunity, 155. 
orphan heirs of fixed desti- 
ny, 164. 
other her defences, 148. 
ouphes, 160. 

paid (play upon), 162. 
parcel (=part), 135. 
pass the career, 134. 
passed, 136, 159. 
passes (in fencing), 144. 
pauca, pauca, 132. 
peaking, 157. 
peer out, peer out ! 158. 



peevish (=silly), 140. 
pensioners, 146. 
period, 160. 
perpend, 143. 
phlegmatic, 140. 
Pickt-hatch, 145. 
pinnace, 139. 
pipe- wine, 152. 
pitty-ward, 150. 
plucked geese, 163. 
posset, 139, 157, 168. 
possibilities, 131. 
pottle, 144, 157. 
predominate, 148. 
preeches, 158. 
present (^represent), 162. 
press (play upon), 142. 
pribbles and prabbles, 131. 
primero, 162. 
properties, 161. 
property, 155. 
puddings (=entrails), 141. 
pumpion, 153. 
punk, 146. 
punto, 149. 
putting down of men, 141. 

quaint, 163. 

quality (=profession), 165. 
quarter (in heraldry), 130. 
quick (reliving), 156. 

raise up the organs of her 

fantasy, i66. 
ratolorum, 130. 
red-lattice phrases, 145. 
reverse (in fencing), 149. 
Ringwood, 143. 
ronyon, 159. 
rushling, 146. 

sack, 141. 

Sackerson, 136. 

sad (=iserious), 157. 

salt-butter (adjective), 148. 

scall, 152. 

scaped, 141. 

Scarlet and John, 134. 

scut, 163. 

several (=separate), 166. 

shent, 140. 

ship-tire, 153. 

short knife and a throng, 

145- 
shovel-boards, 133. 
shrewd (=evil), 148. 
simple of itself, 157. 
simple though I stand here, 

.^34. . 
Sir (priestly title), 129- 
Sir Alice Ford, 142. 
sit at ten pounds a week, 

136. 



INDEX OF WORDS AND PHRASES EXPLAINED. 



173 



sith, 147. 

slack (=neglect), 156. 

slice, 132. 

'slid, 155. 

slighted, 156. 

slough, 162. 

softly-sprighted, 140. 

soon at night, 139, 148. 

so-seeming, 152. 

sot (=fool), 151. 

speak small, 131. 

speaks holiday, 152. 

sped, 157. 

spirit ( monosyllable ), 140, 

160. 
sprag, 158. 
stale (= urine), 149. 
stamps (=coins), 155. 
stand (in hunting), 168. 
standing-bed, 161, 
Star-chamber matter, 130. 
stoccado (in fencing), 144. 
stock (in fencing), 149. 
strain (=:impulse), 142, 155. 
style (in heraldry), 148. 
sufferance, 158. 
swinged, 168. 

take all, pay all, 146. 
takes (=bewitches), 160. 
tall (=stout), 140, 144. 
tall man of his hands, 140. 



I tester, 139. 

that (=:so that), 157. 

thorough^ 161. 

throughly, 140. 
-thrummed hat, 159. 

tightly (=adroitly), 139. 

tire-valiant, 153. 

to-night (=last night), 155. 

to-pinch, 160. 

too-too, 148. 

took 't upon mine honour, 

US- 
toys (=trifles), 165. 
trail, 159. 
traverse, 149. 
trial-fire, 167. 
tricking, 161. 
trovi', 141. 
truckle-bed, 161. 
turn him to pain, 167. 
turtles (=doves), 142, 153. 
twelve scgre, 152. 

uncape, 155.^ 
unduteous title, 168. 
unraked, 165. 
unseasoned, 147. 
unweighed, 141. 
urchins (=elves), 160. 
Urinal, 149. 

vagram, 151. 



Venetian admittance, 153. 
via, 147. 
vizaments, 131. 
vlouting-stog, 151. 
voyage, 143. 

ward (in fencing), 148. 

warrener, 140. 

wash myself of the buck, 154. 

waste (play upon), 137. 

watched you, 167. 

were best, you, 154. 

whenas, 151. 

whiting-time, 154. 

whitsters, 153. 

wide of his own respect, 

.151- 
wmk (=shut the eyes\ x66. 
wise woman (= witch), 161. 
with (=by), 157. 
with cold (=of coldness), 

160. 
wittol-cuckold, 148. 
wittolly, 148. 

woodman (= hunter), 164. 
worts, 131. 
wot, 146. 

yellowness, 139. 
yokes, 167, 

young ravens must have 
food, 137. 




HEAD OF SIR THOMAS LUCY. 



SHAKESPEARE. 



WITH NOTES BY WM. J. EOLFE, A.M. 



The Merchant of Venice. 

The Tempest. 

Julins Caesar. 

Hamlet. 

As Ton Like It. 

Henry the Fifth. 

Macbeth. 

Henry the Eighth. 

Midsummer-Night's Hrctam. 

llichard III. 

Richard the Second. 

Much Ado About g^othin. 

Antony and Cleopatra. 

Romeo and Juliet. 



OtheUo« 

Twelfth Night. 

The Winter's Tale. 

King John. 

Henry IV. Part I. 

Henry IV. Part II. 

King Lear. 

Taming of the Shrew. 

All's WeU that Ends WeK. 

Coriolanus. 

Comedy of Errors. 

Cymbeline. 

Merry Wives of Windsor. 

Measure for Measure. 



Illustrated. 16mo, Cloth, 60 Cents per Volume ; Paper, 40 Cents 

PER Volume. 



In the preparation of this edition of the English Classics it has been 
the aim to adapt them for school and home reading, in essentially the 
same way as Greek and Latin Classics are edited for educational pur- 
poses. The chief requisites of such a work are a pure text (expurgated, 
if necessary), and the notes needed for its thorough explanation and il- 
lustration. 

Each of Shakespeare's plays is complete in one volume, and is pre- 
ceded by an Introduction containing the "History of the Play," the 
" Sources of the Plot," and "Critical Comments on the Play." 



From Horace Howard Furness, Ph.D., LL.D., Editor of the ^^New Vario^ 

rum Shakespeare. '''' 
In my opinion Mr. Rolfe's series of Shakespeare's Plays is thoroughly 
admirable. No one can examine these volumes and fail to be impressed 
with the conscientious accuracy and scholarly completeness with which 
they are edited. The educational purposes for which the notes are writ- 
ten Mr. Rolfe never loses sight of, but like " a ^ell-experienced archer 
hits the mark his eye doth level at." 



Rolfe^s Shakespeare. 



From F. J. Furnivall, Director of the New Shakspere Society, London. 

The merit I see in Mr. Rolfe's school editions of Shakspere's Plays 
over those most widely used in England is that Mr. Rolfe edits the plays 
as works of a poet, and not only as productions in Tudor English. Some 
editors think that all they have to do with a play is to state its source 
and explain its hard words and allusions ; they treat it as they would a 
charter or a catalogue of household furniture, and then rest satisfied. 
But Mr. Rolfe, while clearing up all verbal difficulties as carefully as any 
Dryasdust, always adds the choicest extracts he can find, on the spirit 
and special ** note " of each play, and on the leading characteristics of its 
chief personages. He does not leave the student without help in getting 
at Shakspere's chief attributes, his characterization and poetic power. 
And every practical teacher knows that while every boy can look out 
hard words in a lexicon for himself, not one in a score caii, unhelpet., 
catch points of and realize character, and feel and express the distinctive 
individuality of each play as a poetic creation. 

From Prof. Edward Dowden, LL.D., of the University of Dnblin, 
Atithor of ^^ Shakspere : His Mind and Af't.^"* 

I incline to think that no edition is likely to be so useful for school and 
home reading as yours. Your notes contain so much accurate instruc- 
tion, with so little that is superfluous ; you do not neglect the aesthetic 
study of the play ; and in externals, paper, type, binding, etc., you make 
a book " pleasant to the eyes " (as well as " to be desired to make one 
wise ")^no small matter, I think, with young readers and with old. 

Fro7}i- Edwin A. Abbott, M.A., Author of ^^ Shakespearian Grammar.'''' 
I have not seen any edition that compresses so much necessary infor- 
mation into so small a space, nor any that so completely avoids the com- 
mon faults of commentaries on Shakespeare — needless repetition, super- 
fluous explanation, and unscholar-like ignoring of difficulties. 

From Hiram Corson, M.A., Professor of Anglo-Saxon and English 
Literature^ Cornell University, Ithaca, N'. V. 
In the way of annotated editions of separate plays of Shakespeare, for 
educational purposes, I know of none quite up to Rolfe's. 



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